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BEING 



NOTES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH CHINA, 



BY 



J/ DYER BALL, M.R.A.S., 

H.M. CIVIL SERVICE, HONGKONG. 

AUTHOR OP 

'CANTONESE MADK EASY,' 'HOW TO SPEAK CANTONESE," 'HOW TO WRITE CHINESE,' 

'HAKKA MADE EASY,' 4C., &C,, &C. 



THIRD EDITION. 

HevisecL ctrid ErilctrgecL, 



lylf/r 




SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON and COMPANY, LIMITED. 



-i-O^'i- 



ICEXili-r & "W-^XiSH, Lid. 
MONGKOXG, SHANGHAT, YOKOHAMA AND SINGAPORE, 



1 900. 

^All Rights Jtfs^rvedJ 



'^r 



^ 



#r-^^ 






COPYRIGHT AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON. 



Registered in accordance with the Provisions of Ordinance No. i 
of i888, at the Office of the Registrar-General, Hongkong. 



4i094i3 
1.1 '31 



OTHER WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



Pricet 

' Cantonese Made Easy,' 3rd Edition (in the press) ... — 

* How to Speak Cantonese,' 2nd Edition (in the press) — 

'Readings in Cantonese Colloquial' $3.00 

' The Cantonese Made Easy Vocabulary,' 2nd Edition 1.00 

' An English-Cantonese Pocket Vocabulary,' 2nd Edition 0.75 

' Easy Sentences in Hakka, with a Vocabulary ' 1.00 

' Hakka Made Easy,' Part I 2.00 

' How to Write the Radicals ' 0.75 

' How to Write Chinese,' Part I. (out of print) — 

'The San Will Dialect' 0.50 

'The Tung Kwun Dialect' (out of print) — 

'The Hong Shan or Macao Dialect' 0.50 

' The Enghsh-Chinese Cookery Book,' 2nd Edition (in 

the press) -«• 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



The author regrets that different circnmstances 
have unfortunately delayed the appearance of the 
Third Edition of this book for a very considerable 
length of time, thus causing it, when the Second 
Edition was exhausted, to be out of print. 

A glance at the present volume will show that 
considerable additions have been made to the sub- 
ject matter : the new articles are Ascending on 
High, Agriculture, Arms, Banks and Bank Notes, 
Betrothal, Birth (Customs connected with,) Buffalo, 
Camphor, Cosmetics, Cotton, Dogs, Doctors, 
Ginger, Ginseng, Kites, Larks and other Songsters, 
Phigue, Tenure of Land, and Tigers — nineteen in 
all. The Second Edition contained a little over 
500 pages ; this one has well on for 700 pages, the 
increased size representing not only the new 
articles mentioned above, but extensive additions 
to many of the others, while at the same time, 
alterations, improvements and corrections, where 
necessary to bring the book up to date, will be 

found all through the book. 

h 



— 2 — 

Mr. C. Ford, F. L. S., kindly looked over the 
proofs of the article on Botany. 

China has come so much into evidence of late 
years that the apathetic indifference to the country 
and its teeming millions is giving way in our 
Western nations to a desire for a knowledge of the 
land and its people ; and an interest is being roused 
as events, pregnant with weal or woe to the future 
progress of the world, are rapidly developing in the 
Far East, all trending in the direction of a closer 
knitting together of the ends of the earth. Whether 
we will or not, every day shows that the peoples 
who are in the van of civilisation must lead the 
way in the development of the Middle Kingdom, 
the erstwhile centre of Eastern Asia, and direct the 
incipient strivings of her foremost spirits in the 
direction of truth and righteousness, which alone 
will exalt the nation to a position commensurate 
with her size, population, ancient traditions, and 
future aspirations. Opinions are divided at present 
as to the best way to accomplish this vast pro- 
gramme for the betterment of a third of the world's 
inhabitants and rival interests seem often to paralyse 
action. In recent years, what to some appear hazy 
spheres of influence are discussed, and open doors, 
which to many appear closed and locked, have 
their advocates, while missioners of progress and 
advancement have for long striven to leaven the 
nation with the principles, which have been the 



— 3 — 

making of the West. Tkese efforts are begin- 
ning to show fruit, visible to those who look 
behind the scenes, though the inert mass to be 
moved is so great that the results appear almost 
insignificant when all the facts of the case are not 
taken into consideration. The question in many 
minds is whether the regeneration of China is to 
be a gradual process, or whether a mighty 
cataclysm, overturning the whole empire to its 
foundations, shall sweep away the corruption, 
cleanse ' all under heaven,' purify the atmosphere, 
and prepare the way for a new heavens and a new 
earth. 

Our horizon viewed from the standpoints of 
Europe and America has extended : the East to 
our fathers loomed large and dwarfed what lay 
beyond ; in our day the Far East is the cry. 

The author hopes that this book will continue 
to excite interest in the present theatre of events, 
in the actors, the stao'e accessories that surround 
them, their environment, their play and by-play, 
the motives that influence their utterances, their 
posturing and acting ; and furnish likewise the 
chance of peeps behind the scenes where the 
waving plumes, and embroidered robes are cast 
aside, the exaggerated strides and falsetto tones are 
given up, the clasli of mock warfare, crash of gong 
and clang of cymbal are stilled, the make-believe 



— 4 — 

and mock heroics of the meagre stage are gone, and 
John Chinaman stands revealed, still most highly- 
interesting in his reality and in all his surroundings, 
when stripped of the false glamour and meretricious 
tinsel that has gathered round him in the dim 
visions of the past. 



J. DYER BALL. 

Honghong, 1st Decemher^ 2899. 



PREFACE TO TEE SECOND EDITION. 



»N#V^\#%#>#\^V 



In presenting the Second Edition of ' Things 
Chinese ' to the public, the author must express his 
thanks for the cordial reception accorded to the book 
on its first appearance, thus enabling a revised and 
enlarged edition to be issued so shortly after the first. 

Considerable additions have been made to 
the present edition by the insertion of the following- 
new articles : — Bamboo, Boats, Embroidery, Eng- 
lish from Chinese Pens, Firecrackers and Fire- 
works, the Foreigner in Far Cathay, Jade, Jews, 
Mandarin, Mohammedans, Pagoda, Pawnshops, 
Population, P6-tsz and other Games of Chance, 
Shuttlecock, Stamps, Suicide, Tombs, and Torture — 
nineteen in all. There are very few articles that 
have not been retouched and, in some cases, 
largely added to. All this has, of course, increased 
the number of pages very considerably, but the 
seventy-eight additional pages do not fully re- 
present the actual increase in the size of the book, 
as by the judicious use of small type, a considerable 
quantity of information has been compressed into 
a small compass, and thus introduced, which 
would have had to be excluded. 



— 6 — 

It has been the endeavour to bring up the 
facts to date. If one or two of the more recent 
events have not been taken notice of, it must be 
remembered that some time elapses between the 
printing of the first pages of a book and the last, 
and, that an article once printed, it is impossible 
to take cognisance in it of what may have happened 
subsequently, even though the book may not have 
been issued in its entirety from the press. 

Mr. C. Grant suggested to the author the 
preparation of the new articles under the letter P, 
as well as that on Tombs. To Mr. J. B. Coughtrie 
the author is indebted for the suggestions which 
led him to write the articles under the headings 
of Embroidery, Firecrackers, Mandarin, and 
Torture ; two paragraphs from Mr. Coughtrie's 
own pen are also included under the heading of Art, 
and several emendations in the same article are due 
to his critical acumen, and artistic taste ; the greater 
part of page 153 [in the third Edition parts of 
pages 206 and 207,] is from the same source. 
To Mr. R. Markwick, Jr., the author's thanks are 
also due for the correction of some slight inaccuracies 
which otherwise would have crept into the account 
of the Customs. 

J. DYER BALL. 

Hongkong^ 28th Fehruary, 1893. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



On the appearance of ' Things Japanese,' it 
was suggested to the author that he should prepare 
a book on similar lines with regard to Chinese 
subjects, and the present volume is the result. 

The author's thanks are due to Mr. B. H. 
Chamberlain for the courtesy and kindness which 
accorded him a ready assent to the request that the 
classification and plan of arrangement used in 
' Things Japanese ' might be copied in ' Things 
Chinese,' as far as was compatible with the sub- 
ject-matter of the latter. 

The book is neither a glossary nor an ency- 
clopsedia ; and while, therefore, containing more 
than could be found in a mere word-book, yet, on 
the other hand, it would be impossible in the limits 
of such a small work to treat exhaustively of the 
different things touched upon. At the same time 
it is hoped that sufficient has been written under 
each heading to give the reader a good idea, as 
well as a fair one, of the subject dealt with. 

Thirty years in China have given the author 
many opportunities of observing and studying the 



— 8 — 

Chinese in almost every aspect of their life and 
character ; and he has largely availed himself of his 
personal experience of them and of their curious 
habits and customs in the production of this book. 
He is, however, also indebted to many writers on 
China, whose opinions on certain subjects are well 
worth reproducing and who are competent to give 
information. Where quotations have been made, 
many of them will be fouod to be extracted from the 
books recommended at the end of the articles : in 
such cases it seemed unnecessary to acknowledge 
explicitly in each instance the source from which 
the quotation was derived, and such acknowledge- 
ments would have unduly encumbered the pages 
with foot notes ; it has been thought sufficient to 
indicate other quoted matter simply by inverted 
commas. 

The advice of Mr. Ford, F. L. S., was sought 
on several points connected with the short article on 
Botany ; and to any others— English or Chinese — 
from whom a suggestion may have been received 
or a fact gleaned, the author desires to express his 
best thanks. 

J. DYER BALL. 
Honglwng^ lltli December^ 1891, 



Things Chinese. 



zr- w - -^ 



ABACUS. — The abacus, or countini^-board, is as much 
a necessity in a merchant's office, or shroff's counting-room, 
as his account-books: without the abacus lie would l)e at a 
complete loss to make up his accounts, and his books would 
therefore be unnecessary. Aritlimetic form> no part of a 
school-boy's work : no little lieathen Chinee ever has to sing — 

'The rule of three, it bothers me, 
^nd fractions drive me mad,' 

as both the one and the other are utterly unknown to him. 
Not even the simplest knowledge of arithmetic Mill ever be 
learned by him as a lesson, unless he is destined for a 
mercantile life, or to 4)6 a tradesman, or hawker, &c. ; even 
then he learns only just as much as it is absolutely necessary 
for him to kno^v as a part of liis business training. What 
little idea of figures he does possess, he picks up when 
bargaining for food or toys, or when staking a few cash for 
sweetmeats at the wayside stall. The ordinary Celestial is 
content to get through life with as scanty a knowledge of 
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as would 
serve an English youngster of six or eight years of age. 
A very little goes a long way with him, but nearly every 
man can finger the abacus to a greater or lesser extent; 
and those who have much to do with accounts get very 
dexterous in the use of it, going through the calculation.«i 
most rapidly. We once had the curiosity to time a Chinese 
accountant from a native shipping office when turning different 

A 



2 TIIfyGS CHINESE. 

items expressed in taels and their decinials — items of four, 
five, and six figures — into dollars aud cents, and we found he 
Avorked these sums out in from ten to fifteen seconds. 

The modus operandi is as follows: — Patting his abacus 
down on the table before him, and his books a trifie more to 
the left, the accountant commences his calculations, using 
the thumb and forefinger of his right hand to fl^ick the little 
balls up r,r down as he requires, only using his other three 
fingers, when, his sum done, he sweeps the upper balls to the 
t(jp of the board, and the lower ()nes down to the bottom — 
the positions they occupy Avhen nut in actual use. The 
principle is simply that of the framework of wires with 
coloured beads" used in England to teach children to count. 
With the Chinese, however, it is an oblong tray with bars 
running from top to bottom, and a transverse partitiiju 
running from one side to the othei', dividing the board into 
two unequal divisions. On each bar are seven balls, two in' 
the upper division and five in the lower, each of those below 
stands for one. each of those above, for five; so, if one is to be 
represented, one of the lower ones is pushed up against the 
i-ross-bar, or if two, two are placed in the same position, and 
so on till four, after which all the lower balls are pushed 
back again, and one of the upper ones is brought down to 
the middle partition to stand f(jr five. If six is to be 
represented, one of the lower balls is pushed up to the cross- 
bar, on the other side of Avhicli is the upper ball, for five 
and one make six. The other lower balls are added one 
after the other to represent seven, eight, and nine re- 
spectively, while for ten, one on the next bar to the left is 
used, the calculation going on in the same way as before. 
The operator fixing then on one of the upright bars as 
representing units, the next bar to the left stands for tens, 
the next one for hundreds, the next for thousands, and so 
on, while in the opposite direction, to the right hand, the 
decimals — tenths, hundredths, thousandths, and so on, are 
represented on the consecutive bars. 

The great defect of the abacus is, that it simply 
represents the ,proce,ss of calculation as it proceeds, for, as 



ABATEMENT. 3 

•can readily be understood, eaeh step in the calculation calls 
new combinations of balls into play, and' has the effect of 
obliterating the previous step; so that, if a mistake has been 
made, the whole process has to be gone over again. The abacus 
is simply used, therefore, to record the results of the mental 
calculations as they proceed. . The processes by which these 
results are produced are not shown, and, while each new 
•operation is being recorded on the board, it naturally follows 
that — the balls which have been used for the last answer 
being taken as the reckoning goes on to show the new 
answer — as each computation. is gradually, or quickly, set 
down as it goes on, so, as it .proceeds, i?aH passu, the 
^preceding answer is as gradual!}-, or as quickly, as the case 
may be, effaced. 

The Chinese merchants or traders so habituate them- 
selves to tlie use of the abacus that they become quite 
dependent on it and it is amusing to see the utter helplessness 
they often display in trying to add tAvo simple numbers 
together Avithout an abacus. 

When, at daylight, the shutters are taken down from the 
shop-fronts in Canton, the shopman ensures, as he thinks, good 
luck for the day by shaking the balls of the abacus to and 
fro; at hrst sloAvly, but gradually increasing in speed until 
iinally a continuous sharp clicking sound is produced. 

AJiATEMENT.—^QtxxXy every Chinese tradesman, or 
■^nerchant, states the price of his goods Avith a vicAv to an 
abatement being made. The only exceptions amongst purely 
jiative establishments are Tea, Cake, and Druggists' shops, 
for at such places there is no need to haggle. Exception 
must also be made in favour of the shops dealing almost 
•exclusiA^ely Avith Europeans, where many are beginning to 
<;onform to foreign customs and have a iixed price. 

A Chinese Avill take as much as he can get, but as a 
general rule it is quite safe to suppose that he is asking a 
quarter or a third more than he expects to receive; conse- 
<_[uently offer him half of Avhat he asks, then, Avhile he 
gradually falls in his price, as gradually rise in the offer 

A 2 



4 THINGS CHINESE. 

made to him until neutral ground is reached, when split the- 
difference and he will probably be glad to take what you give 
him. But this must all be done with a perfect nonchalance: 
no eagerness to obtain the object must be shown; no words 
of praise must fall from your lips ; any little defects in it 
must be pointed out: —'It is naught, it is naught, saith the- 
buyer: but when he is gone his way then he boasteth.' 

When in doubt as to the value of anything, a very good 
plan is to go about beating down the price in several different 
shops. A pretty shrewd guess may then be made as to what 
is a fair value for the article ^ for when a shopman sees a 
customer on the point of leaving his shop, he will come down 
to nearly, if not quite, as low a figure as he is prepared to 
accept. 

A Chinaman dearly loves a bargain, and he finds a 
positive pleasure in chaffering over the price, which the 
foreigner (to whom time is money) can scarcely appreciate. 
Looked at from a Western standpoint, it is simply appalling^ 
to think of the hours, days, Aveeks, months, and years, which 
must be wasted in the aggregate in China over the carrying- 
out of this eastern trait of character. 

There is an amusing skit, translated by Giles in his 
'Historic China and other Sketches,' which is an admirable 
parody on the language of the market and the shop, and 
holds up this custom of the Chinese to ridicule. It is styled 
'The Country of Gentlemen,' and represents an ideal state 
of society where the tables are turned — the buyer cracking up 
the goods he is purchasing, and offering and insisting on the 
seller taking a higher price than is demanded for them, "while 
the latter depreciates his wares, asking far too little for them, 
the two haggling over the price at great length — as in the 
every-day world in China— the only difference being that 
buyer and seller have changed places. 

ABORIGINAL TRIBES.— The present race of Chinese 
is supposed to have come into the country some four thousand 
years ago. They were not the first occupiers of the soil,, 
however, and it has been only very gradually that they have 



ABORIGINAL TRIBES. 5 

succeeded in driving out the Aborigines, for large tracts of 
country in the south and south-west of the eighteen provinces 
are still possessed by the former inhabitants, who hold their 
own against the Chinese, and are reported in some parts to 
even have thousands of the latter as slaves in their inaccessible 
fastnesses, thus retaliating on the Chinese, who some cen- 
turies since exposed them to the same treatment. 

The provinces in which these representatives of former 
races are found, are Kwei-chau, Sz-chuen, Yun-nan, Kwang- 
tung, and Kwang-si, and the Island of Hai-nan. 

In Sz-chuen a considerable portion of the west and south- 
west of the province is sparsely inhabited by some forty or 
fifty native tribes, of whom little is known : some are very 
warlike, and constant depredations are committed by them. 
They have their own chiefs, languages, customs, and manners. 
The late Mr. Colborne Baber, of the Consular Service, obtained 
a specimen of the written language of the Lolos — one of 
these tribes. It is a most peculiar sort of caligraphy, and 
presents no point of resemblance to the Chinese language or 
any other that one is familiar a\ ith. 

In Kwei-chau they appear to be scattered all over the 
province; and the same may be said of Yun-nan, where about 
two-thirds of the inhabitants consist of various tribes of 
Lo-lo, Li-su, ]\Iu-su, Man-tzu, and Miao-tzu. In Kwang-tung 
they are located in the north-west of the province, and in 
Kwang-si, in tlie north-east. 

In the Island of Hai-nan, the aboriginal Le tribes have 
maintained their independence against the Chinese for nearly 
two thousand years having, been driven from the coast 
into the mountains in the interior. They are divided into 
civilised and uncivilised Les, and are physically strong and 
well developed. They have the art of M'riting, Avhich is 
described by the Chinese as like th,e wriggling of worms. 
There is so great a diiference in some of the languages 
spoken by the different tribes, that they converse with each 
other in Chinese. The women are tattooed and wear skirts. 
There are also some of the Miao-tsz amongst them; these 
Miao-tsz being found largely in other parts of China. 



6 THINGS CHINESE. 

To show the number and extent of these remnants of ic 
fonner race and civilization in China, it may be pointed out 
that in the provinces of Hu-nan, Kwei-chau, Kwauf^-si, Yun- 
nan, and Sz-chuen. the aboriginal tribes — Miau-tsz and 
others — occupy an area of country equal to that of Francel 
and are some millions in number, representing numerous 
tribes; as many as one hundred and eighty being mentioned,, 
though perhaps not so many are in existence now. They 
are supposed to have come through Burmah into China. As 
is the case with most of these aboriginal inhabitants oF 
China, the dress of tlie AV(nnen is more distinctive than that 
of the men. 

Out of the 11,000,000 inhabitants of the province of 
Yun-nan, two-thirds are 'culti^^ated savages,' i.e., Lo-lo. 
Li-su, Mu-su, Man-tzu and Miao-tzn. 

In the Lln-chaii prefecture of the Kwang-tung province, 
and the south of the Hu-nan province, are to be found the- 
lu tribes, who were brought in the twelftli century from 
the Kwang-si province, and settled on the mountains. Their 
hair is worn long : they are short in stature ; and have scanty 
beards. They, as well as other aboriginal tribes, wear 
cloths bound round their legs from the knee to tlie ankle. 
No foreigner is allowed by the Chinese t<j penetrate into their 
haunts, which are now restricted in extent to what they were 
originally, for the more civilised Chinese have confined 
them within recent times to the high and inaccessibl€^ 
mountains. They have no written language, and their 
speech is quite distinct from tlie Chinese. Their number is- 
perhaps 50,000. 

It has been suggested that the Japanese are descendants 
of the Man or Mian tribes, who crossed over from the south of 
China to their future island home. At the time of their 
emigration they Avere the only inhabitants of the south of 
China. 

So little is known about many of these communities of 
primitive man scattered here and there throughout China, 
their mountain homes are so inaccessible, the accounts of 
their curious customs, simplicity, origin, and peculiarly 



ACUPUNCTURE. 7 

■written languages — when they have such, — the harsh and 

cruel treatment they have received from the Chinese, their 

patriotic stand for hearth and home against these invaders : 

such, and many other reasons, all combine to make these 

people objects of interest to the man of science, the traveller, 

the philanthropist, and the niissionary. 

Jioohs rrroniiiiL'itdc'fl . — •Travels and Re^^earches in Western Oliiua,' by 
E. Colborne Baber. Chapters 4 and o. "Liui,' Nam." by B. ('. Henry, 
chapt rs 9, 20-25. contain interesting notices of tlieni. Se'vera! articles 
liaA'e also appeared in the '(Jhina Keview,' and Essays in the. 'Records of 
the Missionary Conference held at Shanghai, ISidi.' In a paper in the 
'Chinese Repository,' re-pnblished in the 'Chinese and Japanese Repository' 
for October, 18S3. a munber of tribes and cnstonis are noticed. A very 
interesting work is extant in manuscript in Chinese, profusely illustrated 
with coloured pictiu'es showing the costumes, &c. 

ACUPUNCTURE. — Acupuncture is one of the nine 
branches of practice recognised in medical science among the 
Chinese, and is of most ancient origin, having been in use 
from time immemorial. If we are to believe tradition, the 
Emperor, Hwang-t(, was the originator of it. In the sixth 
century, B. C. Pien Ts'iao was skilled in its application; and 
there is extant to this day a ^^"ork written in the third or 
fourth century, B. C, which treats of it. Some six hundred 
or more years ago, i.e., during the time of the Sung dynasty, 
it may be said to have been reduced to a science; for one 
of two copper figures of the human body, made in 1027, 
A.D., by order of the then ruling Emperor, with markings 
to illustrate its principles, still exists. There are 367 of 
these markings, every square inch on the surface having 
its own name and being assigned some relationship, purely 
imaginary, Avitli the internal parts. Acupuncture is exten- 
sively treated of in the medical works of the Chinese and 
is a very common remedy. Many directions are given as 
to the manner of its use, and the user is cautioned against 
wounding the arteries, for which purpose he should knoNv 
the position of the blood-vessels. The operator has a 
manikin full of holes, and by close study of this he learns 
where to drive his needle, the latter being driven into parts 
of the body which may be pierced without fatal results. 
Sometimes heat is applied to the outer end of the needle^ 



8 THINGS CHINESE. 

and this is called hot acupuncture; but it is never 
heated before insertion. In some cases the needle has been 
known to break in the body of the patient, and has had to 
remain there till extracted by the skill of the Western 
practitioner. 

The needle used looks very much like a sewing-machine needle, 
but is longer and coarser than that. Some of the Chinese doctors 
have needles two feet long, and are supposed by ardent admirers to be 
able to drive these instruments entirely through the patient's body ; 
but the great size of the needles is in reality intended to represent 
the greatness of the owner's skill and reputation. The needles 
used are of nine forms, as follows: — The arrow-headed, blunt, 
punccuring, spear pointed-, ensiform, round, capillary, long, and great. 
The point of insertion, the depth, and the direction are all important 
o o c ,|,-,fj jj^g method is usually to drive them through the 
distended skin by a blow from a light mallet. They are frequently 
made red-hot, and occasionally are left in the flesh for days together. 

It is ct)nsidered to be an universal panacea. It was 
■carried over from China to Japan before the dawn of 
history; scarifieal^ion and acupuncture being the peculiar 
forte of tliese two nations. Dr. Lockhart says that Acu- 
puncture is very dexterously performed by the Chinese. 
It is largely resorted to for rheumatism, deep-seated pains 
-of all kinds, sprains, swelling of the joints, &c. It was 
introduced into Europe from China by a Dutch surgeon 
named Ten-Rhyne in the 17th centary. 

BooJm rt'ciinimrn fieri. — A long account is given of the practice in 
Remnsat's " Noiiveaux Melanges Asiatiques, Tome I., p.p. 3.")8-380. On 
page 229 of • The Chinese A? They Are' by Tradescant Lay. woodcuts are 
given of the instruments used for this purpose by the Chinese. See also 
;i. paper in the 'China Medical Missionarj' Journal, f(n' December 1892, by 
Dr. J. C. Thomson, entitled ' >Surgery in China.' 

ADOPTION. — It is a matter of the first importance 
that a man should have a son to offer sacrifices at the 
Ancestral Hall and to worship at his tomb. The cry with a 
•Chinese is not 'Give me children, or else I die,' but 'Give 
' me a son, or I cannot die in peace,' and, failing a son of his 
own, he adopts one. It is impossible, with our ideas on the 
subject, to understand what a matter of prime importance 
this is with a Chinese. To show how it enters into the very 
essence of family life in China, we quote from the learned 



ADOPTION. 9 

and interesting brochure by Parker on 'Comparative Chinese 
Family Law,' as follows: — 

'The Chinese doption of agnates, is * * * not a matter of 
choice * * '', but of compulsion. The brother, when living, 
may demand a nephew, and, when dead, a nephew is given to him 
unasked. It is not only in his interest, but in that of the whole 
family, that the succession should be continued. So unfortunate are 
those considered who have no heirs, that in each town there is. a 
public larariuni dedicated to orbate persons deceased, and the 
officials sacrifice periodically to their manes. 

Again, there is absolutely no distinction between such adopted 
son and a natural-born son. He cannot be disinherited, at least for 
any reason not equally applicable to a natural son ; he mourns for 
his adoptive father as a natural son would mourn, and for his 
natural father as a nephew. Once adopted, he cannot be adopted 
by another. It is a family arrangement, and needs no magisterial 
authority. What seems a curious feature in it, to our ideas, is, that 
it may be made without the knowledge of the deceased adopter, 
whether he is married or not (provided he is over sixteen years of 
age^.) and even after his death. 

But this curious feature is explained when we remember 
that the adoption does not take place for the individual 
adopter in China, but for the benefit of tlie family — the 
family being the unit of society, and the individual no one, 
except a fractional part of the smallest integer of society — 
the family, 

'In treating of adoption in China, it is important to distinguish 
between the adoption of persons bearing the same surname and 
those bearing a different surname. If a Chinese has no son, he 
adopts, if possible, a nephew, who is the son of one of his brothers. 
If there are no nephews, then he adopts the grandson of one of his 
uncles, or the great-grandson of one of his granduncles. In other 
words, he endeavours to obtain a pure agnate. If there are no 
agnates of a suitable generation or if there are agnates of a suitable 
generation, but not of a suitable age, he next looks to the children 
of his sisters, or the grandchildren of his aunts. It is generally only 
when neither agnates nor cognates of suitable age and generation 
are accessible that he adopts a perfect stranger, and, even then, 
he endeavours to find one of the same surname * '•■ '"' 
Adoption of an agnate is generally effected during the lifetime of the 
adopter, who is considered entitled to choose any nephew (except the 
■eldest son of the next brother', before an assembly of agnates, and 
an entry is made in the genealogical register of the family. A rich 
man, of course, in practice, finds it easier to obtain the object of his 
•choice than a poor one, and the handsome son of a rich brother is 
similarly less easy to secure as an heir than the plain son of a poor 
brother * * *. Each elder brother can continue to adopt the 
sons of his younger brethren until he finds an heir who will live ; and 

1 A Chinese is of age at sixteen. 



10 TJIINGS CHINESE. 

elder brothers are in duty bound to give a son in posthumous 
adoption to a younger brother who lias died childless '■■. "'- '-. Aa 
adopted agnate or cognate takes his place before natural sons 
subsequently born to the same father. An adopted stranger is liable 
c o to exclusion by the agnates of his deceased adoptive father.' 

About f) [jer cent, of Chinese families, it is considered, 
adopt children; 70 per cent, of them being males. In some 
provinces and districts strangers are frequently adopted, and 
in Amoy the traders have a peculiar custom of adopting a 
son to act for them as a commercial agent abroad. Iix 
ado[)ting strangers, the child is generally purchased, from 
parents too poor to keep their own offspring, while sometimes 
kidnappers make a profit by the sale of the poor innocent 
victims they have inveigled into their toils. 

There is a secondary species of what might be termed 
pseudo-adoption. As true adoption amongst the Chinese is 
generally due to a certain amount (jf superstition connected 
Avith ancestral worship, so tlie spurious adoption, as a rule, is- 
even more dependent upon the superstitious beliefs of this 
credulous people. There are different varieties of this, the 
parties to one kind being sometimes called godparents and 
godchildren by Europeans. 

The custom has its foundation in the superstition that 
it is possible U) cheat the malignant spirits to whose evil 
machinations are due the death or illness of children. If the- 
parents, then, are afraid that they will not be able to bring up 
a child, (jr that falling short of that, disease may attack it, or 
ill-luck fall to its lot, they hit upon the expedient— sometimes- 
suggested by the fortune-teller — of this semi-adoption. 
Presents are made by the child's parents to the so-called 
adopter, and return presents are received. The adoptive- 
parent takes a considerable interest in his or her adopted 
child, presents and visits being made by both parties on the 
respective birthdays of the primarily interested parties, and 
at feasts, &c.: but. beyond this, there are no definite duties 
incumbent on the so-called godparent. The child still 
remains in its natural parents' house, and, in the event of its 
parents dying, the so-called godparent is not bound to take 
the child into his or her keeping, even if left destitute. On 



ADOPTION. II 

the other hand.' the chihl, if its so-called godparent dies, is 
bound to wear mourning, not deep, as in the case of its own 
parents, but only half-mourning. It is supposed that the 
spirits will be deceived into the belief that the child has 
really been adopted into the new family, and the disease. 
death, disaster, or ill-luck, that would otherwise ensue, are 
effectually prevented, while at the same time the boy's or 
girl's family retain their child, and. if an eldest son. will 
have an heir to sacrifice to them after death. 

Sometimes this spurious adopti(.)n takes place between 
families that are friendly merely with the object of drawing 
them nearer to each other, but it is oftener the result of the 
superstitious belief already mentioned. 

This super.stitiun gives rise to other varieties of false 
adoption, such as giving a child in adoption to a banyan tree, 
or a bamboo, or to a bridge, or an idol, or a stone lion in 
front of a temple. (These stone lions are objects of worship 
by barren woman in tlie hopes of obtaining ofts])ring.) In 
all these cases it, is believed that the spirits inliabiting these 
several objects —their guardian deities-- will take the child 
under their protection and ensure it immunity from thc^ 
ills that flesh is heir to. On a small piece of red pajier 
is written: '(jiven in adoption,' then f dlows tlie \\(»rd "male* 
or 'female,' and the surname and n;uno of the cliiUl. This 
is pasted u[)on the object wliieli is selected, and three 
incense sticks, joss pap..'r, wine, pork, chicken, and cooked 
rice are offered ; bffeiings arc also made at the end of the 
year for protection rendered, as m ell as at the New Year, 
and, in the case of idols, on their birthdays. The piece 
of red paper once put up is not renewed, as the spirit is 
thus supposed to be sufficiently informed by the one notice. 
The mother of the cliild, or sometimes a 'praying woman." 
as she is called, peri'orms the ceremony, offering up a prayer, 
informing the spirit that the child is placed under its 
protection. These proceedings are sometimes undertaken at 
the instigation of the fortune-teller. 

When an idol is selected, it is generally that of some 
favourite god, or goddess, such as Kwiiu Yam — The Goddess^ 



12 THINGS CHINESE. 

■of Mercy,— or Kwan Tai—The God of War, -or T'ln Hau— The 
•Goddess of Heaven, — or Man Ch'ong — The God of Literature, 
— or even The Tutehiry Spirit (Lares) of the Bridge, or The 
Tutelary Spirits placed at the two entrances to a village, 
but not those of the house. In the case of a god being 
selected, part of his name {i.e., one of the characters forming 
his title or designation) is combined with that of the child, 
forming a new name for the child, which is, however, only 
used by the parents. The god selected is worshipped on 
his birthday, and styled ' the adopted father.' 

The bamboo is preferred to other trees as it is a prince 
amongst trees (the Chinese do not know the bamboo as a 
grass), and is so useful. Were no other proof available of 
the slight esteem in which girls are held by the Chinese, 
it would be shox^n by tlie difference in the estimated 
percentage of those of each sex who are the subjects of 
this false adoption ; for in the extreme south of China it is 
believed that 50 per cent of boys are thus subjected to 
adoption, and only 10 per cent of the girls. 

AGIUCULTUEE.-The glory of the farmer is that, 
in the division of labours, it is his pai-t to create. All trade 
rests at last on his primitive activity. Thus Emerson 
begins his *' Essay on Farming.' It is with a feeling of this 
nature that the Chinese have classed the tillers of the 
ground as next to the scholar, and before the merchant and 
the artisan: these' being the four estates into which the 
people are divided by them. From the earliest dawn of 
legendary history, agriculture has been regarded by the 
■Chinese as a high and ennobling calling. This all, of 
course, from a theoretical point of view — on paper, in books, 
documents, proclamations, precepts, and exhortations — -while 
in actual everyday life, the boor (in the original meaning of 
the word), i.e., the rustic, clownish countryman, sinks to a 
subordinate position as compared with that of the relatively 
more cultivated town resident. Yet, notwithstanding this, 
a high idealistic position for the cultivator of the soil is 
fostered by not a few of the institutions and habits peculiar 



AGRICULTURE. \3 

to the Chinese. As an instance of this there is the example 
set by each Chinese Emperor of" plonghing in the Temple of 
Agriculture in Peking at the Spring Equinox every year, 
thus inaugurating the commencement of the farming season. 
The viceroys or governors of the different provinces perform 
the same ceremony annually. An object lesson is thus 
given to the people throughout the empire and a 'deep 
sense of the importance of agriculture to the public welfare '' 
typified. Important it is in a threefold sense : — firstly, 
because of its regular supply botli of food and labour to the- 
people; secondly, the needs of the Government are met by 
moderate taxes, although, unfortunately owing to faulty 
administration and probably to the rapacity of the officials,- 
they are frequently increased to six times the nominal 
assessment; thirdly, an agricultural population, it has been 
found, is easier governed than a purely mercantile or warlike 
community. 

Not only does the Sou of Heaven show an example to^ 
the meanest agricultural labourer by guiding the plough 
with his royal hands; but the Chinese Government poses 
as a benefactor of the humble farmer, and to a great extent 
carries into benevolent action the fostering of this most 
important branch of labour. With this end in view, the 
taxes imposed are in relative value to the productiveness of 
the soil under cultivation ; the reclamation of fields on the 
river banks or the sea shore is easily effected, the terms not 
being onerous; and waste land, whether on the hill sides or 
level ground (if poverty of soil requires a lengthened time 
for the recouping of the industrious fiirmer for capital 
expended), is untaxed until ample time has elapsed for 
his labours to prove remunerative with an assessment 
superimposed, five harvests being allowed to the farmer who 
thus reclaims from a state of nature. And yet with all 
this encouragement to tillage many tracts of country still 
lie waste, some of it the most fertile in the country; partly 
because the people have not the skill and capital to drain and 
render it productive, partly because they have not sufficient 
prospect of remuneration to encourage them to make the 



11. TllIXGS ClIJXESi:. 

necessary outlay, and sometimes from tlic outrages of local 
banditti making it unsafe to live in secluded districts. 

Shin-nung, the Divine Husbandman, is credited Avith the 
invention and introduction of husbandry into China. This 
mythical or semi-mythical monarch reigned B.C. 2700. 

Professor Rein commences his magnificent work on 
'The Industries of Japan ' as follows: — 

'In contrast with the nomadic rac'_^s of Central Asia, the in- 
liabitants of the monsoon region have for thousands of years been 
tied to the soil. They are intensely devoted to a^^riculture, especially 
in China and Japan. Little opportunity is left in these countries for 
cattle-raising ; and since meadows and pastures are wanting, milk 
butter, and cheese — the principal food of the nomadic mongolian 
peoples — were unknown to the Chinese and Japanese. Eggs, and 
the products of fishing and the chase, play a far more important role 
than the flesh of domestic animals. '■' * ''■■' Since sheep were but 
seldom found in China '■■' "■■' ■■■ wool was formerly of small con- 
sideration in the matter of clothing. Hemp and cotton goods, and' 
silk among the rich, especially in the winter, are the stuffs with 
which the population is clothed.' 

As would naturally be expected, the diverse climatic 
conditions of such a vast empire---extending from the plains 
of Manchuria to the mephitic vales of Yun-nan, and from the 
sea-coast provinces to the high mountains and great table- 
lands of Tibet — result in various and dissimilar products, 
from the different regions embraced under the name of 
China; but diverse as these productions are, the large 
l^roportion of them are cultivated for food purposes. Cotton, 
hemp, indigo and mulberry for silk are almost the only 
important plants that are grown which are not alimentary. 
The basin of the Yang-tsz forms the great cotton region; 
hemp is largely cultivated north of the Mei-ling and it 
also grows in Fuh-kien ; the southern provinces produce in 
large quantities the rice which forms the staple of food for 
millions of Chinese; while the northern, colder regions are 
more suited to the maturing of millet and corn. Again the 
tea plant is unknown in the northern provinces, the sun- 
shine and the moist temperature to be found between the 
twenty-third and thirty-fifth degrees of latitude suiting it 
better; the sugar-cane is only to be seen growing in the. 
south and south-eastern parts of China; and the poj)py i.s 



AGHICULTUHE. 15 

unfortunately fast extending its area of cultivatif^n through 
•different provinces — east, west, north, and south, and 
actually constituting a third of the whole cultivation of 
the jDrovince of Yun-nan. 

The never-tiring industry of the Chinese is fully 
exemplified in the unremitting toil of the farmer: in tlie 
sweat of his brow docs he earn his daily bread; week in, 
week out, ffom morn till night, is he to be found; now with 
his primitive plough upturning the soil; now with unsavoury 
concoctions of manure assisting the growth of the plant, 
{for Chinese manuring is applied more to the growing 
plant itself than to the soil) ; now with the assistance of 
his son Morking the tread-mill water-wheel to fill his arti- 
ficial water-channels; or with quick step or half-trot 
Avending his way with water buckets (gigantic watering 
pots) through between his rows of vegetables and supplying 
artificial rain to his crops. Nor do his ingenious con- 
trivances for irrigation stop here; for natural brooklets are 
defected from their wanton course and trained here and 
there down the hill sides, reviving the thirsty terraced fields 
as they go; large wheels with buckets fixed to them turn 
slowly and raise some hundreds of tons of water each day 
from the streams, which, while giving the motion to these 
wheels, are thus assisting in each revolution to rob them- 
selves of their watery treasures; well-sweeps, (the slidduf oi 
Egypt) ladle out the contents of pools constructed for the 
gathering of rain-water; and even a pail or shallow^ vessel 
with ropes attached to each side, is used to scoop up the 
precious fluid from the running brook, a man standing on 
■each bank and with a swinging motion skimming the vessel 
just enough under the surface to take up sufficient water, 
when it is ]"aised and with a jerking motion emptied, this 
all being done Avith a remarkable rapidity and smoothness 
of motion. Man's labour is thus utilised and supplemented 
in various ways by different contrivances, even the cattle 
are sometimes employed to turn the water-wheel, and, as 
we have seen, the stream itself is yoked into the same 
service. All this obtains in the southern provinces. 



16 THINGS CHINESE. 

'In the north of the country, where wheat, millet, and other 
grains are largely grown, the rain supply in summer and the snow 
in winter furnish all the moisture which the farmers require in 
O'dinary years.' 

Few, if any, carts are to be seen in the farm yard in 
the southern or eastern provinces of China; man is 
essentially the beast of burden, aided, of course, by woman, 
though in some districts, women are not employed in field- 
labour at all. 

The convenient carrying-pole with a bucket, or pail, or 
basket, or bamboo loop, us the exigencies ..of the case may 
require, suspended from each end, serves all j)urposes of 
porterage, and is amply sufficient for conveying root- 
crops, grass, water, manure, and anything else that may 
require to be transported short or long distances. To such 
an extent does man perform labour Mhich is relegated to the 
horse or ox in other lands, that the Chinese farmer may 
even be seen carrying his plough off' from, or on to, the 
field, though the buffalo (water-buffalo) is yoked to it 
when it is used to scrape the soil: the same animal pulls the 
harrow in its course over the surface of the ground or a& 
it stirs up the miry bottom of the semi-aquatic rice-field. 
These uncouth, unwieldy looking animals are driven to and 
from their work, as well as guided in it, by boys, and it i& 
interesting to see the complete control which these tiny 
youths have over these huge, ungainly, and stupid-looking 
beasts. 

The agricultural implements of the Chinese are few in 
number and of simple construction ; in all probability, if not 
invented by the redoutable Shin-nung himself, these tools 
of the farmer have been in use for centuries with no altera- 
tion or improvement effected in them. One writer thus 
describes the Chinese plough and harrow : — 

'The plough is made of wood, except the iron-edged share, 
which lies flat and penetrates the soil about five inches. The whole 
invention is so simple and rude that one would think the inventor 
of it was a labourer, who, tired of the toil of spading, called the ox 
to his aid and tied his shovel to a rail ; — fastening the animal at one 
end and guiding the other, he was so pleased with the relief, that he 
never thought of improving it much further than to sharpen the spade 



AGIUCULTUllE. 17 

to a coulter and bend the rail to a beam and handle. The harrow is 
a heavy stick armed with a single row of scout wooden teeth, and 
furnished with a framework to guide it; or a triangular machine,, 
with rows of iron teeth, on which the driver rides to sink it iji 
the ooze.' 

These two instruments are employed in rice cultivation.. 
a broad hoe being used in the dry fields and soft lands; the 
impetus of the blow is increased by the weight of its large 
wooden blade edged with iron, or by. a blade made entirely 
of iron. The spade is but sparingly had recourse to as 
compaied with its constant employment in western lands 
As the seed is not sown br(.)adcast, the farmer is able with' 
busy hoe to loosen the soil and keep his fields bL'uutifuUv 
clear of weeds. No machinery, except such as has alieadv 
been named, is found in the farmyard. Besides the above 
there are mattocks, rakes made of bamboo, bill-hooks which 
do duty for scythes, pruning knives, and sickles. Flails 
are used on thrashing floors (made of chiinam and containing' 
a few square feet each) for thrashing rice, peas, mustard, 
turnips, and other seeds from the stalks, or unshod oxen 
are employed for the same purpose. 

The Chinese farmer, as a general rule, is more a peasant 
proprietor, or, if not that, a peasant farmer rather than 
a farmer in our sense of the term, though here and there 
large farms are to be met with on the frontier provinces 
and up north. So minute are the sub-divisions, that at 
times a ridge or two of potatoes or vegetables in a field 
will belong to (me person and the rest of the field Mill be 
parcelled out in equally small portions. In this connection, 
the following extract from a Report on Agriculture in China, 
published by the Department of Agriculture at Washington, 
Avill be of interest : — 

'Thus in Kwong Tung '"■ "••■ one-sixth of an acre will 

support one person, and the proprietor of two acres of good land, 
having a family of five, can live without work on the produce of his 
little property. Seven acres constitute wealth, as it is reckoned in 
China, and few landowners have a hundred acres.' Emigration 'and 
infanticide * alone prevent such overcrowding as would 

render existence on the land impossible for the population as a wliole. 
In the north, where the soil is less fertile, the holdings are larger, 
and the standard of comfort among the people is higher. In 
Manchuria farms of 500 acres are not uncommon, and there are some 

B 



18 THINGS CHINESE. 

much larger estates ; but the great farms are cultivated in common 
by families, some of which consists of two hundred members. Even 
in the north, it is said that a family of six or seven persons can live 
on three acres of land, and that five acres constitute comfort, or 
Avhat is so considered among people satisfied with the bare necessities 
of existence.' 

The authority for the statement as to the Kwong Tung 
province seem to be an account by Miss Fielde of farming 
matters in the Swatow di.strict, and this same authoress also 

says :— 

'At this rate of production and consumption, the arable land in 
the State of New York, with a reduction of one half its returns on 
account of its more northern latitude, would support the total 
population of the United States at the present time; and the occupied 
arable land of the United States, with its producing power diminished, 
■on account of climate, to one half that of land at Swatow, would feed 
.a population ecjual to that of the whole world, or over 1,400,000,000.' 

Another author says : — 

'The Chinese are rather market gardeners than farmers, if 
regard be had to the small size of their grounds. They are ignorant, 
too, of many of those operations whereby soils naturally unfruitful 
are made fertile, and the natural fertility sustained at the cheapest 
rate by proper manuring and rotation of crops ; but they make up for 
the disadvantages of poor implements by hard work.' 

The hill sides are often terraced for rice, and places 
which would otherwise only be waste land are utilised for 
the production of this useful cereal as will as other plants; 
but it is erroneous to suppose that the whole of China is a 
A\ast garden, or that every hill is cut into a succession of 
steps from base to summit. Rice, being the staple of food 
in the south, is largely cultivated, the fields lying under 
water for a considerable portion of the year on that account. 
Little foot-paths, only wide enough for one pedestrian at a 
time, divide these rice-fields from one another. The flat low 
grounds formed of the alluvial deposits from rivers are a 
favourite and suitable situation for such fields, large 
retaining banks protecting the chess-board mass of fields 
from the incursions of the river. Another foot-path (wider 
than those in the centre of the fields) runs along the tops of 
these banks, and the sloping sides are utilised for the culti- 
vation of fruit-trees, such as plantains, lychees, whampeas, 
&c. Two or three crops of rice are produced in one year 



AGRICrLTURE. 19 

as well as a crop or two of fish, which latter, introduced in 
a young stage into the enclosed water lying on the fields, 
•are grown to a size fit for food in a short time. In some 
districts of country, pea-nuts, sugar-cane, and native tobacco 
are cultivated. A numerous variety of vegetables is also to 
be seen. These are mostly of a poorer quality than European 
Tegetables and are often of a kind unknown to the western 
world. Much of their agriculture consists in rearing them. 
The sweet potato, the yam, taro, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, 
squashes, M'ater-melons, vegetable marrows, brinjals, &c., &c., 
&c., all engage the attention of the Chinese agriculturist, 
and provide him and many of his fellow-countrymen a relish 
to take with their plain-boiled rice; a small modicum of 
salt, or fresh fish, or meat sometimes giving a little additional 
savouriness to their daily fare. For on such frugal diet, or 
•on even a scantier one, does the Chinese farmer and millions 
of the labouring classes perform their daily tasks. 

The Chinese are adepts at manuring, and keep up 
the character of the soil in this way instead of by a 
constant rotation of crops, though this is also said to be 
always practised in some parts at least. The night-soil 
■of the cities — nay of every little liamlet even, and the 
•contents of the primitive way-side urinals, are carefully 
liusbanded and utilised, to the disgust of the olfactory nerves 
of those unaccustomed to such an ancient mode. Other 
materials are gathered for the same purpose, the motto in 
China being to waste nothing, and nothing almost seems to 
come amiss: mud from the rivers, canals, and tanks — a 
splendid fertiliser in a country like China Avhere the rivers 
act as main sewers and dust-bins, and their tributaries feed 
the main channels with sufficient material pilfered from the 
•crumbling banks to form rich alluvial deposits — the sweepings 
from the streets, hair from the barbers' shops, the refuse 
paper «S:c. from fire-crackers after being exploded, lime and 
plaster with years of wood soot impregnating it, gathered from 
kitchens and old buildings, soot itself, old bones, the refuse 
of fish and animals, castings from animals and fowls, all 
are eagerly gathered from every spot and made use of; and 

B 2 



20 THINGS CRINESK. 

so also is vegetable rubbish whicli is charred under turf.. 
the residue is a rich black earth, wliich is laid upon the 
seeds themselves when planted; the refuse left after expressing 
the oil from ground-nuts, beans, vegetable. tallo\\ , tea. and 
cabbage seeds, &c., is mixed with earth and made into cakes, 
to be sold to farmers. 

To one accustomed to fields laid down in grass and 
clover, it is curious to notice the absence of these features so 
common amongst tis : what might be pasture (jr meadow 
lands such as the bottom of valleys and fiat land are used for 
rice and other crops. 

The spring and summer in the south is characterised bv 
a relatively high temperature, light winds, dampness, and 
frequent rains alternating with dry spells, but the early 
winter is the dry season in which for several months clear 
skies prevail, accompanied by a cold temperature \vhich. 
increases as the winter progresses and the new year comes- 
in, till in January, February, and March the temperature is 
keen, and is rendere<:l intensely disagreeable by the dampness 
Avhich is apt to be present to a considerable extent in the 
shape of rain, mists, and fogs. The typhoons which bring 
torrents of rain in their train are often frequent visitants 
in the summer months wlien the sotith-west monsoon is- 
blowing, the north-east monsoon being the winter wind. 
Vegetation and agriculture, of course depend largely upon 
these climatic conditions, the copious rains, bright stmshine. 
and mountain mists, all have their share in producing the 
rapid growth of the plant; but nature tends her own products 
with a careful hand, for fogs and mists, followed by April 
showers, commence the irrigation of the land parched and 
dried with the moistureless year-end; these lighter show-ers 
are succeeded, as the hardened earth is gradually moistened 
and better able to drink in the heaven-sent floods, by heavier 
thunder-storms and drenching rains, to be again succeeded by 
the torrential downpours following in the "wake of the dreaded 
cyclonic typhoon. No frosts of any appreciable influence, as- 
a rule, occur in the neighbourhood of Hongkong and Canton ; 
but the case is different further north in hiijher latitudes. 



AGRICULTURE. 21 

The cost and difficulty of transport no doubt exerts a 
deterrent effect on the development of Chinese agriculture. 

The Chinese farm-house is not, as a general rule in the 
south, to be found in the centre of tlie ground which the 
farmer has under cultivation, but at some distance, i)erhaps. 
from the fields, forming with all the other farm-houses of the 
neighbourhood a little hamlet or village, from wliich tlie 
men issue at early dawn to proceed to the scene of their 
labours, and to whicli. they return when their work is over. 
This economizes space and affords more security to the 
•denizens of the little communities from the attacks of robbers, 
though it is a Avonder what temptation can exist for attacks 
from such when tlie farmers are so little removed themselves 
from the abject de[)ths of poverty. The small holdings and 
farms are sometimes rendered still more fractional in size 
with the death of each proprietor, as on his demise his 
■possessions are often divided amongst his family, such being 
tlie general outcome of tlic l;i\v of succession. Disputes as to 
the inheritance of land give rise to many feuds and crimes. 
Such family quarrels often form the principal incident on 
M'hich the stories in many a Chinese novelette hinge. 

To find a pirallel to the agricultural condition of the country, we 
must look to our Colonial Empire, where settlers apply for uninhabited 
.lands, and receive the rights over them in exchange for small annual 
payments. This is the principle on which lands have been appropriated 
in times past, and still are leased out to farmers. As a rule, the land 
so let is taken up by a clan, the members of which cultivate it much 
■on the principle of tlie village communities '■■' * '■ . Ten families 
•constitute, as a rule, a village holding, each family farming about ten 
acres. To such a community is allotted a common village plot, 
which is cultivated by each family in turn, and from which the 
^tribute grain is collected and paid. The surplus, if any, is divided 
between the families. Towards the end of the year a meeting is 
held, at which a division of the profits is made on one condition. Any 
farmer who is unable to produce the receipt for the income-lax on 
his farm ceases to be entitled to any benefit arising from the village 
plot. 

liook.s rrcinnmcndcd. — Williams's • Middle Kiusrdoiii.' Vol. 11. , pp. 1-14. 
Douj^Ias's 'S:>fiety in ('hina,' pp. 120-136. Lay's 'Thft Chinese As They 
Ave,' Chap XII. • Husbandry of the Chinese.' 'A Corner of Oatliay' by 
Miss Fielde. Chapter on ' Farm Life in China.' Jour. Ch. Br. R. A. S. New 
■Series, Vol. XXIIL, No. 2. 1888. See Articles in this book on Buffalo, 
Land Tenure, Silk, Tea, and Rice. For an account of the Emperor plough- 
ing, xec the Hongkong daily papers for the 24th and 2oth of April, 18H3. 



22 THINGS CIHNESB. 



AMUSEMENTS. -The Chinese, though u hard- workings 
and industrious people, are not behind other nations in their 
love of amusements, and enter with great zest and gusto into 
the enjoyment of them, most heartily assisting, in the- 
French sense of the term, at shows, processions, «&c. It 
needs but a saunter through the crowded and busy streets of 
a Chinese city to see tliat, though there is much bustle and 
unceasing toil, there is, on the other hand, an unfailing 
provision for the relaxation of the tired workers and the 
delectation of the younger members of society. Theatres are 
crowded, though the performances last for long weary hours, 
if not days. The various birthdays of the gods, or religious 
festivals, are hailed with delight, for then the streets are 
matted over and hung with puppets gorgeously dressed in 
mediaeval costume, representing historical scenes; while 
glittering chandeliers, ablaze with light, shed a bright 
radiance on the ere-while gloomy streets and transform them 
into a dazzling vision of light. All these illuminated streets 
converge to one centre, Avhere, in fronc of the temple in 
honour of whose god the exhibition is being held, a grand 
temporary structure, towering in height above all the other 
surrounding buildings, is erected, gorgeous with painted 
scenes in many coloured hues, brilliant with clusters of 
crystal lights, and all the magnificence of ceremonial and 
gaudy show, and the paraphernalia of heathen worship. 
Here all the grandeur is centred, radiating out through all 
the surrounding streets, and here it is that the crowd is at 
its thickest, — a compact mass, open-mouthed, gazing to their 
heart's content, enjoying to the full all the entrancing sights, 
the celestial music of clashing cymbals, twanging guitars^ 
harsh flageolets, and shrill flutes. 

The annual Regattas of the Dragon Boat Feast give ai> 
outing to many a child and lady, who, attired in their 
holiday best, line the banks of the rivers, and watch the 
narrow snake-like boats, dashing up and down in impromptu 
races and spurts with their rivals from neighbouring 
Aillages. [See Article on Dragon Boats). 



AMUSEMENTS, 2S 

Anotlier great oviting is that on the clay for 'Ascending' 
on High;' many who can afford the time, go to the summit 
of some liigh mountain or lofty hill, in reniombrance of the 
deliverance of a family in olden times from destruction by a 
similar action. {See Article on Ascending on High.) 

The Full Moon Festival, when indigestible moon-cakes 
are seen at every confecti(jner's stall and shop, is kept gaily. 
Everv boat hangs out one or more tasteful paper lanterns, 
which, suspended from bamboo poles, make a general 
illumination over the dark waters of the deep and murky 
river, and, overhead, the full-orbed moon in harvest splendour 
shines down from the clear sky on a scene of tropical, 
oriental beauty. The faint glimmer of the tiny craft i.s 
eclipsed anon by boats, all ablaze with one glow of light 
from innumerable lamps. Tliese larger vessels slowly float 
down the stream in the distance. 

Visits to, flower gardens give a variety to the monotony 
of every-day life, and even the sombre worship at the tombs, 
after the prescribed ceremonials are through, is transformed 
into pleasant picnics, and happy family reunions. 

Besides these out-door entertaiirments, there are different 
games of cards, dominoes, chess, &c., the two former bjing- 
almo.st invariably associated with gambling. [See Article 
on Gambling). Numerous other games are played, whose 
whole end and object is gambling pure and simple: amongst 
which mav be noted jjames with dice, enc umters of fiiifhting 
crickets, and quail matches. The jeiinesse don'e of a 
literary (U- artistic taste also amuse tliemselve.s and while 
away the passing hour by wine parties, at which capping 
of verses takes place. Their leisure moments are sometimes 
beguiled by pen and ink sketches on fans, by inscriptions- 
on the same articles of necessity for a warm climate, or by 
the composition of antithetical sentences, which are inscribed 
on scrtjlls and presented as souvenirs to friends. 

Out-door sports are not in vogue with the Chinaman. 
When one sees anything appr(jaching the kind going on. 
there is almost always sure to be some utilitarian object in 
view, as in archery, which is practised for the military- 



24. TIIfXGS CHINESE. 

examinations. (Sei Article on Army, and last paragraph of 
Article on Examinations.) The gymnastic exercises with 
heavy weights are underbtken with the same object. Very 
rarely one may see a few young Celestial swells paddling 
together in a canoe, but this is uncommon enough not to be 
a typical sight 

As to out-door games, the most violent in which adults, 
engage is sliuttlecock. (See Article on Shuttlecock.) A 
iiiore sedentary pastime is that of flying kites. {See Article 
on Kites) in which grown-up men indulge, while youngsters 
stand by and look on. Very ingenious are the diffc^rent 
forms and shapes of kites made, and some, like birds, are so 
well manipulated, when in the air, as to deceive one at first 
sight. 

Blind singing girls perambulate the streets at night, 
ready to accompany their song with the guitar (p'ei-p'a), 
itinerant ballad-singers of the other sex can be hired by the 
day. Story-tellers are pretty sure to get a good crowd round 
them while interesting episodes in Chinese history are 
recounted to their listeners. In any open space, or lining 
the bro-id^'r streets, are peep-shows, the more crude native 
production being repLiced in many cases, during the last 
twenty or thirty years, by stereoscopic views. Jugglers, 
and Punch and Judy shows, performing monkeys, as well 
as gymnasts, are always certain of a circle of admiring 
spectators. 

The ladies join in a few of these amusements, as has 
already been pointed out, but are debarred from the great 
majority of those which cannot be enjoyed in the privacy of 
their dwellings. They kill time by playing cards and 
dominoes, occasionally going to the theatre, gossiping, and 
visiting — when they are quickly carried in closed chairs 
through the narrow streets invisible to everyone, and every- 
one and everytiiing nearly invisible to them. 

As to childrens' toys and sports, though one writer in 
iin English periodical very sapiently (?) remarks that there 
are no toys in China, yet it needs but a few steps in a 
Chinese city, in the south at all events, to show the absurdity 



ANCESTRAL WORSHIP. 25 

■of the statement. Besides taking their share in the enjoy- 
ments of their elders, they have more especially for their 
benefit, tops, paper lanterns in the shape of fish, iron marbles, 
toy cannon and weapons^ and a thousand and one different 
games and toys with which the ingenuity of the caterers for 
their amusement fills the toy- shops, and covers the stalls at 
the street corners. 

As yet no borrowing of modern, western out-door sports 
has taken place. The boys which congregate round the 
cricket-ground in Hongkong may be seen playing a s'treet- 
boy's game of cricket where any stick does for a bat and 
.anything round for a ball; and in Singapore a few Chinese 
have begun to play this essentially English game, many of 
them being babas, i.e., Straits-born Chinese : but it will 
probably be many a long day before English sports and 
games are introduced to any appreciable extent in China 
itself amongst the natives. They are too violent for 
respectable Chinese to engage in. and consequently not 
-dignified enough in their character, looked at from an 
oriental stand-point. The Chinese school-boy is not brought 
lip in an atmosphere of athletics and physical education as 
English youths are. If with us such a training is sometimes 
■carried to an excess, there can be no doubt that the Chinese 
err in the opposite direction. The motto drummed into 
the Chinese youngster is that — 'Play is of no benefit a' all.' 

ANCESTRAL WORSHIP.— Ancestral worship is 
filial piety gone mad. True to their practice of retaining 
•customs and habits for centuries and milleniums, the Chinese 
nation has not given up this most ancient form of worship, 
and the original worship of ancestors, like the older 
formation of rocks on the earth's surface, is strong as the 
everlasting hills, and, though overlaid by other cults, as 
the primary rocks are by other strata, is still at the 
foundation; nearly all the other methods of worship being 
later additions and accretions. The worshipping of ancestors 
thus underlies most of their religion, and many of their 
-every-day acts and deeds. Social customs, judicial decisions, 



26 THINGS CHINESE. 

appointments to the office of prime minister, and even the- 
succession to tlie throne arc influenced by it. A magistrate, 
for instance, will punish a criminal much more lightly if he- 
is the eldest or only son, in case one or both of his parents 
have recently died, than he otherwise would, for fear of 
preventing him sacrificing to the dead. An Emperor 
on accession to the throne must be younger than his 
predecessor, in order to worship him. Ancestial worship 
has been defined as including not only the direct worship of 
the dead, but also whatever is done directly or indirectly for 
their comfort; also all that is done to avert the calamities 
which the spirits of the departed are supposed to be able to 
inflict upon the living, as a punishment for inattention to 
their necessities. Under sucli a description as this, the 
actions which it gives rise to will be found to permeate 
nearly every phase of Chinese life:— concubinage, adoption, 
house-building (both of private dwellings and clubs), the 
institution of the Tung-wa Hospital, the laying out of 
streets, modes of revenge, and methods of capital punishment, 
all are partly due to the same c;iase. The consuming desire 
to have sons, and the despising Of daughters centre in this, 
and many of their superstitions and beliefs take their motive 
force from it. This worship is the only one that is entitled 
to the name of the National Religion of China, as the dead 
are the objects of worship of poor and rich,^y-oung and old. 
throughout the length and breadth of this immense empire. 
The Chinese are willing to relinquish every other form of 
worship and religion, but this is so interwoven into the 
texture and fabric of their every-day life, and has such a 
firm hold on them, that scarcely anything, short of the 
miraculous, forces them to give it up, with such tenacity of 
purpose do they cling to it. The Roman Catholics, with 
more worldly wisdom than piety, allowed their converts at 
one time to. retain this worsJiip — though not now; the 
Protestant missionaries find it the most formidable obstacle 
to the introduction of Christianity; the Mohammedans in 
China do not allow it; and it is one of the strongholds of 
opposition to all Western progress and science. 



ANCESTRAL WORSHIP. 27 

Believing that the spirits in the next world stand iii: 
need of the same comforts and necessities as the inhabitants 
of this world, they hold it is the bounden duty of friends- 
and relatives of the deceased to forward these to them; 
but with that curious trait of the Chinese mind which 
believes in large promises, but small fulfilments — in great 
sho\Y and little reality — the articles sent into the spirit 
Avorld for the use of their departed relatives, instead of being 
the veritable articles used in this stage of existence, are, like 
so many Things Chinese, shams. For houses, boats, clothes, 
sedan-chairs, bills of exchange, mock-silver dollars, and 
every conceivable object of use in this mundane sphere of 
existence, have paper and bamboo models made of them. 
Expense of course, is not spared in the production <;)f these 
objects, but still it aaIU readily be understood that objects 
made of such flimsy materials cannot be worth a tenth or a 
hundredth, nor even sometimes a thousandth part of the 
genuine article. These are forwarded into the next W(.)rld 
by being burned. They proceed even further, fir they send! 
supplies to the beggar spirits, who may have been neglected 
by living relatives, or who may have no relatives living, 
and to the spirits of those who have died at sea, in war, 
of starvation, or abroad. They believe that nearly all tlie 
ills to which flesh is heir, such as sickness, calamity, and 
death are inflicted by these unfortunate and demoniacal 
spirits. 

The usual, if not universal belief with the Chinese, is,. 
that a man possesses three souls. After death one goes into- 
the Ancestral Tablet prepared for it, where it receives the 
worship of the man's descendants at proper and stated times : 
at such times also, worship is paid at the grave to another 
soul; while the third goes into the nether world to receive 
the rewards or punishments of the deeds done in this, finally 
to return to the upper world again as a god, a man, a beast, 
a bird, or a reptile according to its merits. This third soul 
can also be worshipped at the City Temple, the god of which 
is the ruler of departed spirits, and has an entourage of 
oflicials, lictors, and attendants, like the Governor of a Chinese 



28 THINGS CHINESE. 

City. Bribery and corruption reign rampant there amongst 
tlie spirits, just as in the venal workl of" China. 

The Ancestral Tablet is generally a plain, oblong piece 
■of hard MOod. split nearly the whole way up. and stuck into 
a small transverse block of wood. On one of the inner 
surfaces and on the front outer surface, are written the name 
and age of the deceased with other particulars. Incense is 
^hurnt night and morning before the tablet, and the near 
relatives prostrate themselves before it for forty-nine days, 
at those times. 

The following is the story of the origin oi the custom: — 

'The custom of erecting a tablet to the dead is said to have 
•originated during the Chau dynasty (B.C. 350) when one, Kai Tsz-chui, 
attendant on the sovereign of Tsin, cut out a piece of his thigh and 
caused it to be dressed for His Majesty, who was fainting with hunger. 
Kai Tsz-chui, not being able to continue his march from the pain he 
suffered, concealed himself in a wood. This prince on his arrival at 
the state of Tsi sent soldiers to take care of him, but they, being unable 
to discover him, set fire to the wood where he was burnt to death. 
The prince, on discovering the corpse, erected a tablet to his manes 
which he begged to accompany home, and there caused incense to be 
offered to him daily.' 

The Tablets used by the boat people in Canton are 
smaller, and differ in other respects also from those used on 
shore. Immediately after death, plain ones are in vogue 
amongst the floating population, but after three years or so 
they arc ornamented and painted. A very curious custom 
-also prevails amongst this tan-k't people in connection with 
this mattei". Images are made of deceased members of the 
family, and, what is still more curious, these images are of 
the children wlio have died — curious, because cliildren are 
not ancestors, and the Chinese do not erect tablets to anyone 
under twenty years of ago \vho has not been married. The 
boys are usually represented in these cases as riding on lions 
or white horses, and the girls on white storks. 

The Man-tsz Aborigines, in Western Sz-Chuen, take an 
unburnt piece of wood from the funeral pyre; on the smooth 
surface they picture a rude likeness of the head of the 
family who has been there cremated, and place this in 
the house as the Ancestral Tablet. 



ARCHITECTURE. 29- 

When a Chinese directs in his will that a certain 
portion of his estate is to be reserved for the carrying out of 
ceremonies at his grave, in accordance with tlie principles of" 
ancestral worship, English Courts of Law, in the cases that 
have conic before them, have decided that such a bequest is 
void, as tending to a perpetuity, and money cannot be bound 
up for an indefinite period, which is not intended for a 
charitable purpose. {See cases of Yip Cheng Neo *'. 
Ong Cheng Neo, L. R. 6 P. C, Appeals 381 ; also Hoare v. 
Osborne, L. R. 1. Eq. 585. The latest decision is, 'In the- 
matter of the estate of Tio Wing Yung (Judgt.).' reported in 
*China Mail,' of 6th May, 1891.) 

JidoJm rt'comincndcd. — 'An Pjssay on Ancestral Worship." by Kevd. 
M. T. Y'ates, D.D.. dealing with it generally, and another 'The Attitude uf 
Chri:<tianity toward Ancestral Worship.' dealing with it historically. 

ARCHITECTURE.— The Chinese have made but small 
advances in architecture: they have not proceeded beyond 
the first steps of architectural construction. The first 
principle which they have acted upon appears to be that 
of raising two side-walls to support the beams of the 
roof. The length of these beams, in buildings of any size, 
necessitates the adoption of rows of pillars to support them. 
To obviate the too great multiplicity of these pillars, what 
has been described as a very pretty system of ' king ' and 
•queen' posts have been contrived, by which the pressure- 
of several beams is transmitted to a single pillar. These 
are often beautifully carved, and there is much scope for 
variety. Tradescant Lay, from whom we have already- 
quoted, further says : — 

'A lack of science and of conception is seen '■■' *, but 

fancy seems to have free license to gambol at pleasure, and what the 
architect wants in developing a scheme, he makes up by a redundancy 
of imagination.' Williams says: — -'In lighter edifices, in pavilions, 
rest-houses, kiosks, and arbours, there is, however, a degree of taste 
and adaptation that is unusual in other buildings, and quite in keeping 
with their fondness for tinsel and gilding rather than solidity and 
grandeur.? Another Sinologue says : — 'Their ornamentation is often 
beautiful. But, even in their ornamentation, the Chinese rarely, if 
ever, exhibit congruity of detail. The details are often perfect, but 
they are seldom in such full harmony with other details as to present 
to the spectator the pleasing aspect of a harmonious work of art. 



^0 THINGS CHINESE. 

Tlieir constructiijn is bad; very little regard is paid to 
•outline, except in pagodas, roofs of temples, and bridges, 
•but the ornamentatifjn is the plcasantcst feature, on whicli 
the greatest care is bestowed. 

We have often heard from an old resident in China a 
•description of the impressions produced by the first sight of 
•Canton. Before reaching China, accounts had been received 
of the destruction by fire of a Chinese theatre, and the loss 
of life of thousands of natives. Arrived in front of the city, 
a remembi'ance of the frightful catastrophe led the new- 
-comer to suppose that the torn-down look of the houses and 
sheds was the result of the destructive element; the idea 
never occurring to him that the usual habitations of the citizens 
■of such an enormous city were such as these. The magnificent 
■churches and cathedrals, the stately edifices, the superb 
mansions, are all wanting in a Chinese city; instead of the 
broad streets, spacious avenues, and large squares— congeries 
of narrow lanes, a maze of alleys (scarcely one entitled to 
the name of a street, according to our acceptation of the 
term); and the few open spaces in front of the temples — not 
worthy to be dignified with the title of squares. Lining 
both sides of the way, if in a family street, the Avails arc 
formed of bluish-grey bricks, neatly pointed in mortar with 
granite foundations reaching several feet above the surface 
of the ground. Two or three long steps of granite, extending 
from wall to wall of the house, lead up to the front, which, 
with the exception of the door in the centre, presents a 
blank wall to the passer-by. There are no Avindows, only 
a plain, massive, double-leaved door of thick planks fastened 
by two wooden bolts. These doors are often left open during 
the day, and the privacy of the inmates ensured by two 
outer, lighter constructed doors, also of wood, only reaching 
a little more than half-way up the door-way. The side 
walls of the house project a couple of feet or so, and support 
the eaves, Avhich are carried out a corresponding distance, 
and shelter t,he few feet in front of the entrance. The 
walls are generally the thickness of the length of a brick, 
and after ei^ht or ten courses, a course of bonders is laid. 



AliClUTECTURE. 31 

The door once entered, over tlie liigh wooden threshold, one 
"finds one's self under a small introductory roof, which 
shelters the porter's room, and facing one is a row of large 
doors, made of boards, in sets of three pairs or so, reaching 
from wall to wall; beyond these is a small court, open in the 
■centre to the sky, where some green glazed pots of ornamental 
■flowers or plants are standing on similar flower-stands. The 
whole house is now before one, the separate apartments 
being under different roofs, the foremost being the reception 
hall; for a Chinese residence is a collection of small buildings, 
except amongst the poorest classes. 

A ground floor is all that many houses can boast of, and 
this is generally tiled ^\ ith red flooring-tiles, a foot square 
and an inch in thickness. Marble tiles are occasionally laid 
on the ground, but they are not highly polished. If there 
are first floors, they are usually under one or more of the 
inner roofs. 

In some of the houses, more especially in the hongs 
and godowns fronting the river in Canton, there are as 
many as six, eight, ten, or twelve separate roofs, one behind 
another, all in a row, with courtyards between each, 
and covered passages on each side of these open spaces ; 
the latter serve the double purpose of giving light and 
ventilation, taking the place (.)f windows. Avhich are mostly 
confined to the interior of the houses, where they open on 
the courtyards. 

The tent, it has very generally been thought, has 
furnished the model for the construction of the roof in 
kiosks and other buildings; but one or two writers have 
lately dissented from this opinion.. 

Ceilings are but seldom seen in Chinese houses, nor are 
the walls plastered or papered. The roof-tiles are laid in 
alternate row^s of roll and pantile, or small semi-cylindrical, 
and broad, slightly concave ones, the traces it has been 
pointed out, of early, split-bamboo roofing, and not of the 
tent structure. In good roofs, a second layer of these is 
put on above the other, or even a third on the top of 
all. 



32 TIIIXGS CHINESE. 

The habitations of the poor are often the merest hovels^ 
and many workmen, as well as the poorest classes, live in 
matsheds, the framework of which is made of bamboo, and 
tlie walls and roofs of oblongs formed of bamboo leaves 
fastened together. These matsheds, built of the ' attap,' as 
it is called by the Malays, are very convenient, since they are 
easily and quickly put up without a single nail, the bamboo 
poles being tied together with long strings of split rattan, 
and even more easily taken down when done with, for the 
fastenings are cut instead of being undone. They are 
largely used as temporary structures for religious festivals 
and for many otlier objects, one of the most curious being 
the construction of one over a house in the course of erection ; 
to ]:)rotect it and the Morkmen from the heavy tropical 
rains. 

Along the banks of the rivers, over the mud-tlats, are 
found many of the poorest sheds and shanties, of a nondescript 
character — old boats often forming the foundation, and the 
superstructure made of anything and everything, reminding- 
one of Mr. Peggotty's famous ark, as described in ' David 
Copperfield.' 

The houses of the better classes have much ornamentation 
about them. Stucco-work, representing human figures, birds, 
animals, and flowers, is often found over the front of a house, 
as on a frieze, and below the projecting roof; or the same 
kind of decoration is found on inner walls, and affords a 
pleasant relief to the plain monotony of the otherwise bare 
brick walls. In Swatow, the whole front wall is often adorned 
by six or seven large medallion-like pictures, which lend a 
brightness to the otherwise plain surface. In fact, ordinary 
buildings are more highly ornamented up the coast than is 
the case further south. Variety is also given by the octagonal, 
circular, and peai'-shaped door-ways, which pierce the walls 
in the suites of apartments, and in gardens, and rockeries of 
the superior class of houses; a quaint picturesqueness is 
added to the general effect by the geometrical patterns of the 
combination of door and window in one, the rows of which 
serve as screens or partitions between the different rooms, as 



ARCHITECTURE. 33 

well as by the fixed open-work partitions of like construction.. 
Carvings of fruit and flowers and gaudy paint-work also 
add their bizarre attractiveness to the toute ensemble. 

The roofs of shops are built like those of private 
houses, the shape being that of a Y turned upside down; 
but instead of sheltering themselves behind a plain brick 
wall, as in the case of the dwelling houses, they are quite 
open to the street, and often have an upper story supported 
in the front bv a broad brest-summer. The whole shop is 
open to the street, and is closed up at night by shutter-doors. 
(In Swatow the shutters over the counter are transverse 
and not upright; they fold up from tlie counter and down 
from the roof, meeting in the space in tlie centre.) A 
granite counter occupies a portion of the space in front, 
and a hard-wood counter runs at right angles to it back 
into the shr)p. Behind the shop proper is the counting- 
room. The sigu-bjards, though not strictly speaking au 
architectural feature of the buildings tlicmselves, add much, 
by the brilliancy of their reds and greens and gilding, to 
the picturesqueness of the business streets, and relieve the 
sameness which would otherwise result from the want of 
architectural decoration. The sign-boards (the largest ones 
are ten or more feet in length) are suspended at each side 
of the shop front; some are set in stone bases, others hang 
over the entrances or in the shop itself. A glance down a 
street full of shops with its scores or hundreds of many- 
coloured sign-boards is quite kaleidoscopic, as the glare of 
the tropical sun flashes on their variegated hues; while 
in the softer shades of the covered-over streets they serve to 
lighten up the semi-religious gloom. 

In the construction of the temples and public buildings 
Avhere space is not so restricted, the main structures — two 
or three in number — stand isolated, with stone-paved paths 
and steps leading up to terraces of the same material on 
which they are built, venerable trees shading the otherwise 
open spaces. The dwellings of the abbots and monks, or 
the subsidiary buildings, are at the sides or behind, with 
numerous corridors leading to the apartments or suites of 

c 



34 THINGS CHINESE. 

rooms. Most of what has been written above applies to 
■Canton and its neighbourhood, for of the inhabitants of 
the various provinces (sometimes even of districts) of China, 
it may be said with truth, to a greater or lesser extent, hi 
omnes lingua, institutis, * * * inter se differunt, and 
their dwellings, though in the main constructed on the same 
general outlines, have peculiarities of their own in different 
parts of the country ; for instance in Amoy, many of the 
houses have an upward curve at each end of the top of the 
roof, quite foreign to the extreme south of China. 

There is nothing more incomprehensible to a foreigner than an 
official residence, with its gates, folding doors, halls, side-rooms, • 
balconies, carved and frescoed pillars, lattices, and matted ceilings 
* " *. The frescoes are gaudy, and represent every conceivable 
subject, from genii walking among clouds to a moth upon a peach. 
The roof is a tangled mass of Asiatic glory. The Sz-chuane?e houses 
excel in their exterior decorations ; the ridges, gateways, and corners, 
are beautifully trimmed with broken bits of blue and white porcelain, 
which, at a distance, have a most pleasing effect * * ""\ The 
houses, except in the large cities, are flimsy affairs, with walls of 
pounded earth, and roofs thatched with straw. 

The principal material f<jr house construction in 
Swatow and its neighbourhood is earth, or river sand, or 
decomposed granite, mixed with lime in the proportion 
of seven parts of the former to three of the latter. This is 
rammed in between boards, hardens, and appears to be most 
durable. 

The roof has been considered the chief feature of Chinese 
architecture ; and there is no doubt that a great amount of 
decorative art is expended on the massive roofs of the larger 
and finer temples and public buildings. The lightness and 
grace of the curve of these heavy roofs is worthy of all praise; 
they are sometimes constructed double, or in such a manner 
as to give the appearance of two roofs. The rbject in this 
is to lend an air of greater richness and dignity. The roof, 
it will thus be seen, does not occupy, in public buildings 
and temples, the subsidiary position that such a part of the 
structure takes in the West. It is the most striking object 
in this class of buildings, and with the numerous varnished 
timbers and posts, the green glazed tiles and glazed dragons, 



ARCHITECTURE. 35 

pearls, &c., and unhidden by plastered ceilings, it looks 
most picturesque. On the other hand, the roofs of private 
■dwellings are simply for use. 

It would naturally be expected that in such an ancient 
land as China, the whole land would be full of old ruins. 
Such is, however, not the case ; even the Great Wall has been 
re-constructed once or twice. There are some structures still 
standing that have stood for more than a thousand years ; 
but to find older ones than this, it is necessary to excavate 
the mounds— the tombs of ancient cities — where a few stone 
buildings may be found: one, built seventeen centuries ago, 
was recently discovered. Cave and rock dwellings are also 
to be seen in some parts. The great majority of buildings 
are modern, in the sense that that word has when applied to 
anything in China ; for many things that are classed under 
that category would be considered to be mediaeval or ancient 
in the West. The reason for this paucity of relics of 
antiquity is not far to seek : much of the material employed 
is not fitted to withstand the ravages of ages, and, when it is, 
the flimsy style of construction does not insure that durability 
which it might otherwise hope to attain ; added to which 
the humidity of the climate, and the insidious attacks of 
insects, all militate against handing down to posterity the 
works of its forefathers ; furthermore, the glance of the 
Chinese has always been a retrospective one — back to 
the hoary ages — and the tendency has not been to build 
for future times. It is a curious feature in Chinese building 
construction that so little stone has been employed. The 
streets are paved with it ; the city walls are partially built 
of it ; the foundations of houses are constructed of it ; so 
are the end counters in .shops, as well as some of the outer 
columns in temples ; but otherwise it is a rare thing to find 
it entirely used in the building of any structure, except 
commemorative arches and bridges. The Chinese have been 
acquainted with the arch from very early times, though they 
make comparatively little use of it. Many elegant bridges 
have been constructed in different parts of the empire, some 
of great length. 

c 2 



36 THINGS CHINESE. 

Commemorative arches, as these peculiar quaint portals- 
may be styled, are generally put up by imperial command or 
permission, to commemorate the virtuous and brave. They 
consist of a large centre and two smaller side gateways, the 
material employed in the south of China being generally 
granite, and in the west soft, grey sandstone. There is a 
considerable amount of ornamentation about them, usually 
in the way of carving, and in the^^vest of China the flo%vers 
and figures carved in relief are of marble, delicately fitted 
and highly polished. In tlie streets over which they are- 
erected, they at all times form a pleasant contrast to the 
otherwise common lack of architectural adornment. They 
are embellished with inscriptions, setting forth the virtues 
of the individuals whose deeds are immortalised by their 
erection. The pagoda is one of the most graceful specimens 
of Chine.se architecture. [See Article on Pagodas.) 

The cupola or dome is almost entirely unknown. 
Mohammedan architecture deserves some mention, and it is 
possible that the superiority of the Ming architecture may 
be traced to it. 

Boohs ri'comviendctl. — ' The Chinese As They Are,' by Tradescant La)',- 
Chap, on ' Architecture.' Jour. C. Br. K.A.S. New Series. Vol. XXIV.. 
Ko. ?>. Article on ' C!hinese Architecture, by Dr. Edkius, and Article 
in the same number, by S. R. von Fries on 'The Tent Theory of Chinese 
Architecture,' and the Report of the Discussions on the two Papers in the 
same number. 'L'Art Chinois,' lieading of • Architecture,' by M. Palelogue'. 
Same subject in Williams' ' Middle Kingdom.' and in most text-books on 
China. An account of Ca\'e Dwellings is found in Williamson's 'Travels 
in North China. 

ARMS. — To find a counterpart to the arms which the 
Chinese have used in the past, and which are still not 
obsolete amongst them, one must turn to some of the 
weapons employed amongst us in the west in the time, for 
instance, of the Tudors, the Stuarts, and the Coramon- 
Avealth; for the antiquated spears, pikes, and halberds, like 
those of mediaeval Europe, are still modern instruments of 
warfare amongst this ancient people, and, though fast being- 
superseded, they have not yet been entirely laid aside. 

Of spears, there are a number of varieties ; among which 
may be noticed one similar to the partisan of the time of 



ARMS. 37 

James I., called a Icik; another is like the pike of the time 
of Cromwell, called a t'iii; and yet another, somewhat like a 
voulge or boulge, of the time of Henry TIL 

Of halberds, there are several different kinds, known as 
Via fa fit: some of which resemble the halberds of the times 
of Henry YIIL, Charles H., and the double axed halberd 
of the time of Charles I. ; while another variety, known as 
the pun, ijilt fit, from the crescent on one side, resembles 
one of the time of Henry VII. ; another, also called a hih, 
is like one used during the reign of William IH. 

All these halberds and spears, with the exception of the 
A'oulge and the pike, are also ancient weapons amongst the 
Chinese. It seems curious that there should be such a 
similarity between the ancient weapons of nations so widely 
separated by distance from one another. A trident, a 
formidable weapon, is also amongst the arms of the Chinese. 

Swords and dagsjars are thus distinii-uished in China: 
a sword (kin\) is two-edg_ul; a dagger [to) has only one 
edge. Further, swords are always single, while daggers may 
be single or in pairs ; in the latter case, one side of each 
■dagger is flat, so that tlie two may lie close together and fit 
into one scabbard or sheath; thus occasionally a Chinese 
•dagger would, by us be termed a sword. The common sword 
amongst the Chinese is like a Roman sword, but probably a 
little longer. At one time the Chinese officers carried 
swords, while the men were armed with daggers. A second 
kind of sword, but coming under the category of daggers, 
has a flat belly, or blade, wliich tapers away to a sharp 
jpoint. The sword would seen to be guardless, having a 
transverse bar simply, the hand grasping the short hilt 
above it, being entirely unprotected, while in the flat bellied 
sword mentioned above, and in many daggers, a guard runs 
from the bar at the hilt, forming a semi-circle with the rest 
of the handle; this cross piece being only on the edge side. 

Bows and arrows also form part of the equipment of 
soldiers are who not armed with western weapons of pre- 
•cision, though it is said that in modern times they are more 
for show at examinations than for use in battle. The bows 



38 THINGS CHINESE. 

are made of horn and bamboo. Cross-bows have also been 
employed by the Chinese in warfare. 

Dr. Williams thus describes the matchlock and 
cannon : — 

The matchlock is of wrought iron and plain bore ; it has a longer 
barrel than the musket, so long that a rest is sometimes attached to 
the stock for greater ease in firing ; the match is a cord of hemp or 
coir, and the pan must be uncovered with the hand before it can be 
fired, which necessarily interferes with, and almost prevents its use 
in wet or windy weather. The cannon are cast, and, although not 
of very uniform calibre from the mode of manufacture, are serviceable 
for salutes. 

The cannon in use before recent years were all muzzle- 
loaders, some on the city walls in Canton being more than 
two hundred years old. Of late, breach-loaders and rifles of 
modern European construction have been coming into use, 
as portions of the Chinese army are being provided with 
them [See Article on Army); but many of the Chinese 
mandarins are wedded to their old style, and when reverses 
occurred in the recent war with Japan, believing that they 
were due to the use by their own soldiers of rifles and 
modern arms, they proceeded to cast thousands of gingals, 
so as to provide their army with them and ensure victory. 
Gingals, or jingals, are long tapering guns, six to fourteen 
feet in length, borne on the shoulders of two men and fired 
by a third. They have a stand, or tripod, reminding one of 
a telescope. By means of these stands, they are set in the 
bulwarks of boats, when employed in naval warfare, or for 
the protection of peaceful merchantmen, and being less liable 
to burst than cannon, they form the most effective gun the 
Chinese possess. 

Two men jingals are a little over ten Chinese feet long, and are 
of large bore. When ready to be fired, the front rank man grasps 
hold of the middle of the barrel as it rests in the hollow of his right 
shoulder, while the rear man takes aim and draws the trigger. 
Formerly the flash-pan was used, but with the introduction of 
percussion caps, the jingals have been fitted with nipples. These 
weapons are claimed to have conquered China, being introduced by 
the Manchus when they invaded the empire of the Ming dynasty, 
and with jingals, Chinese Turkestan was conquered by the Emperor 
Chien-lung's armies in the 17th century. The ordinary charge for 



ARMY. 39 

a jingal of this sort is a good handful of gunpowder, with a two- 
and-a-half ounce bullet. Sometimes on the battle-field, the jingals are 
loaded with an extra allowance of gunpowder, and three bullets — 
often four — are rammed in to create as much destruction as possible. 

Another weapon of attack used in naval warfare, and 
especially by pirates, is what is known amongst English- 
speaking people as the stink pot: — 

'This unsavoury name conveys a wrong impression, as the article 
so described, bears but little resemblance, in shape or material, to its 
namesake used some centuries ago by pirates on the Atlantic side. 
The proper name for them is "hand-bomb" or "hand-grenade." 
They are simply earthern pots, large enough to contain from two or 
three pounds of powder ; the opening at the top is very small, and 
after they are filled with gunpowder, the lids are cemented on with 
chunam, which renders the whole air-tight and impervious tO' 
damp. Around the pot, and on the lid of it, a lot of slow matches 
are attached. The man who throws the "hand-bomb," stands on the 
yard of the foresail, at the foremast head, in the same way as a 
leadsman does with a hand lead when taking soundings. At the 
right moment he lets it go, so that it will fall amongst the men on 
the opposing vessel. The concussion, when it strikes, causes it to 
break, when the powder comes into contact with the burning match 
and explodes. Junks defend themselves against these "hand-bombs" 
by spreading a fishing net or something similar, tightly drawn about 
seven feet above the deck. When the "hand-bombs" strike the net, 
its elasticity causes them to re-bound, and fall overboard before they 
explode. The only smell observable in the explosion of these 
"hand-bombs" is that of ordinary gunpowder. The powder used 
contains more charcoal and less saltpetre than ordinary powder, 
hence it explodes with less force and rapidity. The special virtue of 
these "hand-bombs" in defence and attack, is that in exploding, they 
throw the pieces of the pot about with great force, the hot fragments 
inflicting severe wounds and burns on anyone within range. They 
are a mild kind of bombshell, being much slower in operation and 
less deadly in effect than the ordinary shell. The deadly smell 
supposed to be connected with them is all a fiction.' 

BonJts ri'commended. — Scc next Article. 

ARMY — The military elements, which may be grouped 
together under the general term of the Chinese army, are 
various in number and different in composition. The three 
main, but quite distinct, divisions are : — 

(1) The eight banners, comprising 'all living Manchoos 
and descendants of the Mongolian and Chinese 
soldiery of the conquest.' These furnish guards 
for the palace and garrisons in various chief 
cities and other places. 



40 THINGS CHINESE. 

(2) The Chinese provincial army of the * Green Standard/ 

comprising the Lmd and marine forces. The 
former numbers 400,000 or 500,000, and is 'an 
effete organisation discharging the duties of 
sedentary garrisons, and local constabulary.' 

(3) The braves or irregulars, enlisted or disbanded 

as required, and used for actual warfare. No 
approximate guess can be made of their numbers. 
A later return from a native newspaper gives the 
following as the troops garris(jned in the eigliteen provinces 
of China Proper, not counting those in the ]\ranchurian and 
Mongolian provinces, and the New Dominion ; but it must 
\)Q remembered that in China, returns on paper as to numbers 
of troops in existence are ver\' different from the reality, or. 
in other words, the soldiers for whom pay is di'awn are 
considerably more in nnmber than those who actually receive 
the money, fn- here, as in every brancli of the Chinese 
service, peculation by the officials is to be f )und. We give 
the numbers, however, for what they are worth: — 



Chih-li 


. 42,532 


Shan-tuno^ 


.. 20,174 


Shan-si 


. 2),531. 


Ho-nan 


. 13,835 


Kiang-su 


. 50,13i 


Ngan-hui 


.. 8.T2S 


Kiang-si 


. 13,832 


Fu-kien 


.. cn,3ot 


Che-kiang 


. 39,009 


Hu-pch ... 


.. 22,740 


Hu-nan 


. 35,590 


Shen-si ... 


.. 42 260 


Kan-su 


. 55,819 


Sze-chueu 


.. 33,188 


Kuang-tung . . 


. 69,052 


Kuang-si 


.. 23,408 


Yun-nan 


. 42,549 


Kwei-chow . 


.. 48,490 



Making a total of 650,178 



We learn from still another authority, that the Chinese 
army in time of peace is supposed to number 300,000 men ; 
that there are 500 in a camp, and that from three to fifteen 
camps are to be found in the neighbourhood of a city or 
village with generals in command. 

Bodies of the troops are being trained, in the European 
style of warfare, at Peking and other important centres; the 



ARMY. 41 

bugle-call is now heard in the north at Tientsin, as well as 
in the heart of the empire at Hankow, and in the south it 
is also making itself familiar to ears which, a few years 
since, only knew the sound uf the gong and drum; but the 
numbers so drilled form, as yet, but a small proportion of 
the whole armed force of China. Matchlocks, gingals, bows 
and arrows, spears and lances, are still the weapons of many. 
Sometimes foreign arms are put into the hands of the soldiers 
without proper instruction, and at other times costly weapons 
rust and are rendered completely useless from neglect. 

It is said, that for five years previous to 1892, 50,000 
men with European weapons were stationed on the coast of 
the Gulf of Chihli, and that part of the number were 
instructed by European officers, who were mostly German. 

The foreign officers, however, are not, as a rule, employed 
for any other purpose than to teach the soldiers their 
drill and the use of their weapons : as a German writer 
remarks, ' kein fremder Offizier erhillt ein Commando oder 
•die Befugnisse cines Generalstabs-offiziers oder Adjutnnten.' 
The notable exceptions h;ive been the cases of Generals 
Gordon and Mesny. 

The old-fashioned native forts which mostly do duty 
throughout the len<2:th and breadth of the land, and wliich 
until lately were the only fortifications to be found, are 
ridiculous, looked at from a European military stsindpoint. 
Long rambling walls of brick are to be seen cHuibing up 
the hill sides (as at the old Bogue Forts at the entrance to 
the Canton River), crenellated for the muzzle-loading cannon, 
a few specimens of which perhaps do duty in time of peace, 
to be hastily supplemented in time of war by others ; or at 
other places, on more level ground, smaller square forts may 
be seen, which would perhaps have done well enough in the 
mediaeval ages for the purposes for which they were built, 
being strong enough, doubtless, for the internal well-being 
of the country, and as a protection against Chinese rebels 
armed with Chinese weapons. On the coast, at the diff"erent 
treaty ports, as well as at some other places, such as at Port 
Arthur, and the Bogue, already mentioned, fortifications after 



42 THINGS CHINESE. 

the European style have been constructed, and breech-loading- 
guns, of modern European make, have been provided, Krupp 
guns, it was stated several years ago, were being made in 
Yun-nan, and as time goes on the establishment of more 
arsenals will probably be of use in meeting the present wants 
of the Chinese soldier in the way of arms. 

The Chinese * * have several batteries of breech-loading 
artillery attached to their Manchu forces distributed over the Empire. 
Every province has a contingent of foreign-drilled troops, who have 
been taught by native instructors who learned their drill from German 
soldiers. 

There is unfortunately, however, but little hope for the 
present, of military reform being carried out in China on 
any large scale, at all events, to be of utility in the defence 
of the country against wanton attacks in the future. 
Since the Japanese war, the question of the reorganisation of 
the army has naturally been supposed to be one of the fii'st 
steps that would be taken. That there was a necessity for 
it seemed patent to every eye. After such a severe blow it 
was thought by many that China would take immediate 
steps to bring herself into line Avith her more warlike 
neighbour, and thus, by a visible readiness against attack, 
provide against such a contingency. However, no eifective 
steps would appear to have been taken yet with this end in 
view. There is no national army in China in the modern 
sense of the term, and no common arm provided for the 
various provincial forces, nor is the training uniform, nor 
their organisation on the same basis. Decentralisation i& 
the order of the day with regard to those small forces which 
are armed with modern weapons of precision. A few of the 
Viceroys, more progressive than the old school of Chinese 
officials, engage officers to instruct small bodies of men ; but 
there is no uniformity of purpose in the matter, and the 
same Viceroy will sometimes engage instructors from different 
countries who, of course, have been trained in different 
schools. As to their troops, there is no commissariat, and 
there are no stores of ammunition or other necessaries. 

The uniform of the comnion Chinese soldier consists of 
a loose jacket andliDOse trousers: the formal- brown, yellow^ 



ARMY. 4a^ 

or blue, with a wide facing on the edge of another colour ; 
the trousers are usually blue. In a big circle, on both front 
and back of the jacket, are Chinese characters denoting the 
branch of the service they are connected with, &c. The 
common cloth shoes and a conical, small, bamboo hat com- 
plete the outfit. 

The pay of the soldiers is very small : insufficient in fact 
to support the men, and they are forced, in order to provide 
the necessaries of life, to engage in civil employment or private 
work, though in the expenditure of the empire is put the 
sum of 21,600,000 Taels, being the pay of 600,000 infantry 
at the rate of three taels a month, half in money and half 
in rations, and 11,616,000 Taels for the pay of 242,000 
cavalry at four Taels a month, but, with all the peculations 
that take place before it reaches the hand of the private 
soldier, and the months of pay he is often in arrears, the 
reality does not come up to the statements on paper. There 
does not appear to be a uniform rate of pay, for in important 
places where the soldiers are under foreign methods of 
instruction, as at Tientsin, Foochow, and the Bogue, a higher 
rate prevails, ranging from |12 to |20 a month, and it is 
more regularly given. The soldiers in the retinue of a 
Viceroy are also better paid, but the ordinary Chinese private 
gets very little. A dollar may be given to him once every 
ten days, being at the rate of ten cents a day, while another 
ten cents is held over by the Mandarin and perhaps given 
to him in a lump sum at New Year's time, or at the different 
festivals. It may be interesting to compare the pay of the 
Chinese soldier with tliat of the British and German private 
in English money. The German soldier gets 4^d. a day ; the 
British soldier, Is.; and the Chinese, when be gets what is 
due to him, as above, say about 3^d., and supposing also all 
his deferred pay to be given to him, often a most unlikely 
thing, the whole may amount to the rate of about 7d. a day. 
It must be remembered that the 3^d. a day supplies him with 
all the food he gets. No pension nor invalid allowance is 
provided,* nor is there any medical staff corps nor army 
medical corps, and the sufferings the Chinese soldier- 



U THINGS CHINESE. 

undergoes in the field, not only from the horrors of war, but 
also from malaria and disease, are dreadful to contemplate. 

In imitation of the Civil Service examinations in vogue 
in China there has been introduced during the present 
dynasty, a series of examinations for the army. A gradation 
similar to those for the literary degree has been established, 
the successful candidates at the higher of which are awarded 
the same titles of Sla-ts'ai, Kil-jin, and Tsin-sz; the highest 
degree! is also competed for at Peking. [See Article on 
Examinations.) No knowledge of letters in general is 
required of the candidates, though the Literary Chancellor^ 
before conferring tlie title of Siu-tsai on them, tests them 
on their literary attainments. What is required for a 
successful pass is muscle, as shown in the lifting of lieavy 
weights, ssvordsmfinship, and skill in archery. The latter 
is sliown both on foot and on horseback. A straight 
trench, a foot or two in depth and wide enough for a 
pony to run in comfortably, is dug in the parade ground, 
and, mounted on horseback, the aspirant for militaiy 
honours galhjps or trots at a brisk pace along this. As 
the pony has simply to go straight along the trench, tlie 
liorseman is able to devote his whole attention to his archery. 
Provided with a sufficient number of arrows he thus s\viftly 
passes the targets, three in number, and about fifteen or 
twenty feet distant from iiim as he passes, and lets fly an 
arrow at each, the distance between them being s ) fixed as 
"to give liim time to pull an arrow from his quiver and fix 
it on the string. A gong is beaten at each target, on a 
successful hit being made, to apprise the examiner who is 
seated in a pavilion at the end of the course. 

Though the successful candidates are rewarded witli 
the same degrees, if one may be allowed to use the term, 
as those conferred on civilians, yet, as it is merely by bodily 
strength and a quick eye that they g'ain them, the people, who 
most wisely do not valu'i military distinctions, attach but little 
honour to such, and a military officer is considered to be of 
a much inferior grade to a civil one. The naval officers 
-are selected from the same successful candidates. As one 



ARMY. 45 

writer has well said: — 'No knowledge of tactics, gunnery, 
engineering, fortifications, or even letters in general, seems 
to be required of them; and this explains the inefficiency 
of the army, and the low estimation its officers are held 
in.' An acquaintance with the theories of Sun-tsz, Wu-tsz, 
Sz-ma, and other venerable and antique authors, is expected 
of candidates for a military degree. These are a study 
for the philosopher and disciplinarian rather than for the 
tactician . 

The Chinese is not a fighting animal. Pitted against 
Europeans, his tactics have been often like those of the 
native dog — ^much bluster, but little done, and easily driven 
off. It is said Chinese soldiers are brave in flight, for the 
word 'brave' is written on the back of their jackets, but it 
is also written in front, and when properly drilled, armed, 
and led, they are not wanting in courage, as the Ever 
Victorious Army, under General Gordon, gave proof. 

The Chinese army of 1876-7, which reconquered eastern Tur- 
kestan, acknowledged to have been a most brilliant achievement, 
was officered and led by Chinamen. They conquered Kashgar with 
an army armed with European weapons, and showed considerable 
science in the art of war. Their soldiers were drilled according to 
foreign methods and marched in obedience to officers trained in 
European principles, and their Geneials manoeuvred their troops 
in accordance with the teaching of the most advanced military 
authorities. 

Besides, their history is as full of brave deeds and 
desperate valour on the field of battle as that of any other 
people. The Chinese nation possesses the raw material to 
turn out Avhat are known as good soldiers; but they possess 
scarcely any, or but very few, native officers capable of 
developing this raw material into efficient warriors, fit to 
stand before an army trained in western warfare ; and 
further the whole Chinese system, or rather want of system, 
added to the corruption in the ranks of those who pretend 
to lead them, militates entirely against the Chinese Tommy 
Atkins being anything but a coward before the Avestern foe, 
and a desperado and robber in the piping times of peace 
amongst his own countrymen. The quiet and peace-loving, 
home-abiding Chinaman, may well say, ' Defend us from our 



46 THINGS CHINESE. 

■defenders.' Martial law prevails in the Chinese army, and 
very summary justice is dealt out to any soldier detected 
in any flagrant crime; for he has short shrift, his superior 
officers having the power of life and death in their hands, 
without the necessity of referring to the Emperor for 
•confirmation of the sentence. The Chinese soldier thus 
holds his life in his hand in times of peace as well as in 
times of war. 

The following estimate of the qualities of the Chinese 
as soldiers may prove of interest in this connection : — 

The old notion is pretty well got rid of, that they are a cowardly 
people when properly paid and efficiently led; while the regularity 
and order of their habits, which dispose them to peace in ordinary 
times, give place to a daring, bordering upon recklessness, in times 
of war. Their intelligence and capacity for remembering facts make 
them well fitted for use in modern warfai-e, as do also the coolness 
and calmness of their disposition. Physically, they are on the average 
not so strong as Europeans, but considerably more so than most of 
the other races of the east; and on a cheap diet of rice, vegetables, 
salt-fish and pork, they can go through a vast amount of fatigue, 
whether in a temperate climate or a tropical one, where Europeans 
are ill-fitted for exertion. Their wants are few; they have no caste 
prejudices, and hardly any appetite for intoxicating liquors. Being 
of a lymphatic or lymphatic-bilious temperament, they enjoy a re- 
markable immunity from inflammatory disease, and the tubeixular 
diathesis is little known amongst them. 

The soldiers are often employed in China in duties 
which would be considered by western military authorities 
as outside their proper functions. Construction of the 
Government railway in Formosa, building walls, and even 
scavenging may be given as examples of the extra military 
labours which they are called upon to perform at times. 

Boohs recotmnendcd. — Mayer's 'Chinese Government.' 'Account of 
the Arm}' of the Chinese Empire,' by Sir Thos. Wade, in Chinese 
Repository,' Vol. XX., pp. 250, 3U0, and 363. ' Memoiies sur les Chinois,' 
torn. VII., gives a translation into French of the Chinese text books for 
juilitary candidates, accompanied by remarks upon movements adorned 
with numerous engravings illustrating both arms and armed array.' 'Die 
tJhinesische Armee,' von Major a. D. Pauli, an article in 'Schorers 
Familienblatt' Heft 7, 1892. 'China, von einem friiheren Instiucteur in 
der Chinesischen Armee,' Leipziz, 1892, a small pami-hlet, containing some 
ten pages on the Chinese arinj-. The 'China Mail' of 22nd Juh', 1892, 
contains an account of scavenging by soliliers, and the 'Hongkong Daily 
Press' of 11th October, 1893, notices the praying to the spirits to direct 
the aim of the guns. See Article on Arms. 



ART. 47 

ART. — Painting is still in a backward stage in China; 

the laws of perspective, and light and shade, are almost 

unknown, though the former is occasionally honoured with 

a, slight recognition. Height usually represents distance 

in a Chinese painting, that is to say, distant objects are 

put at the top of the picture, and nearer ones below them, 

while but little difference is made in the size. As regards 

light and shade, no shading is put into many Chinese 

landscapes, though M. Paleologue states that native artists 

have sometimes attained to the expression of the most 

artistic and delicate effects of light and shade, instancing 

the grand landscape school of the T*ang dynasty as 

producing perfect works under this class. The arrangement 

of objects, and the grouping of persons in natural attitudes, 

would appear not to be taught according to our ideas on the 

subject. Symmetry is the object aimed at; the subsidiary 

parts are treated Avith as much care as the principal; the 

smallest details are elaborated with as much minuteness as 

the most important. Figures are nearly always represented 

full-faced; and the heads are often stuck on at a forward 

angle of forty-five degrees to the rest of the body ; this being 

the scholar's habitual attitude and one indicative of much 

study. What the Chinese delineator considers of prime 

importance is the representation of the status occupied by 

the subject : as his rank in the official service, or grade in 

the literary corps, or social position. The presentation of 

a living, feeling soul, revealed in its index, the face, sinks 

into utter insignificance in comparison with the exposition 

of the external advantages of rank and fortune, or of the 

tattered rags of the old beggar fluttering in the breeze. 

Rough outline sketches, in ink, of figures and landscapes are 

much admired. In these, impossible mountains, chaotic 

masses of rock, flowers, trees, and boats, are depicted in 

such a manner as to call forth but little enthusiasm from 

the Western observer. 

As draftsmen, their forte lies in taking the portrait of some 
single portion of nature's handiwork. Many of these they have 
analysed with great care, and so well studied as to hit off a likeness 
with a very few strokes of the pencil * * *. There is a peculiarity 



48 THINGS CHINESE. 

among the Chinese which has risen from the command they have 
over the pencil — they hold it in nearly a perpendicular direction to 
the paper, and are therefore able, from the delicacy of its point, to 
draw lines of the greatest fineness, and, at the same time, from the 
elastic nature of the hairs, to make them of any breadth they please. 
The broad strokes for the eyelash and the beard are alike executed 
by a single effort of the pencil. 

It has been pointed out tliat the exigencies of Chinese 
writing demand an education of the eye and hand, analogous 
to that required in designing. The handling of the hair 
brush — the Chinese pen — every day gives a facility and 
readiness of touch and expression 

Tlie Chinese artist has learned a lesson which has only 
within the last few years been understood by us in our 
natural history museums — he copies all the parts of a bird 
in detail, and then, it has been aptly said; 

He studies the attitudes, and the peculiar passions of which atti- 
tudes are the signs, and thus represents birds as they are in real life, 
c- o c- though they may be rudely executed in some of their details. 
Nor is this fidelity confined to birds alone, neither is it a new advance 
in their art, as we find it recorded of Ts'ao Fuh-hing, a famous painter 
of the third century, that, having painted a screen for the Sovereign, 
he added the representation of a fly so perfect to nature that the 
Emperor raised his hand to brush the fly off. 

We ourselves have seen a cat go up to examine a bird 
which was drawn standing on a spray in a most natural 
manner. These stories point out one of the most striking 
characteristics of certain Chinese painting — its graphic 
character — and remind us of Apelles' horse which the living- 
horses neighed to, as well as the other famous story of a 
horse trying to eat a sheaf of corn on the canvas. -With 
equally minute care they faithfully copy flowers, bamboos, 
and trees, noting carefully the minute ramifications of 
branches, as well as the action of each particular kind of 
wind on the objects painted; Avhile, however, all these 
points are being attended to with a patience worthy of the 
highest commendation,, as it produces a sort of fidelity to 
nature, yet at the same time the Avhole perchance is vastly 
deficient in correspondence and proportion. This entering 
into the mysteries of nature and the reproduction of some of 
them with an approach almost to photographic fidelity, 



ART. 4i> 

scarcely to be expected from them, judging by some of the 
other productions of tlieir pencils, is of interest and use to 
the botanical student, since the illustrations in such a native 
work, for instance, as the great Materia Medica, rhe' Peri 
Ts'ao, give a far better idea from their, in many instance?, 
great truthfulness, than the mere letter-press would convey 
to the foreign student. Their attempts at depicting animal 
life result in rude, uncouth forms, but the conventionality of 
the attitudes of the human figure frequently lends a charm 
which does not attach to many of their products. The 
proportion and grouping together of the componenr parts of 
a picture are defined by a conventional canon, to the rigid 
adherence of which is due much of the unreality so con- 
spicuous in their attempts at portraying the human passions,' 
and they have remained at the same in)perfect development 
of this branch of their art for many centuries; (tiiis stage 
has been compared to that of Italian painting in the time of 
Giotto and Simone Memmi), added to which is their entire 
ignorance of anatomy, the result of this ignorance being- 
often a caricature of the human body. At the same time 
all praise must be given to the delicacy of their colouring, 
which, without any scientific laws to guide them, they seem 
intuitively to know hoj^vto apply. They are very fond of 
their works of art, and the mansions of the wealthy are 
hung with scrolls depicting landscapes and sprays of flowers, 
with birds, and insect life, etc. Even the poorer classes 
adorn their humbler dwellings with cheaper specimens of 
pictorial art, and scarcely a boat of any pretensions on the 
Canton river but is ornamented with a few pictures, while 
the sellers of sketches in black and white find a ready sale 
for their Avares in the streets. 

It is necessary, however, to remember that our commend- 
ation is awarded to purely native art, the bastard productions 
of those daubers who seem to thrive in Hongkong and some 
of the Treaty Ports being altogether beneath contempt. 

The Chinese, in some localities, are clever at fresco or 
encaustic painting, which they employ upon their temples 
and better class houses in the form of panels and friezes 

D 



50 THINGS CHINESE. 

l)oth inwardly and externally. {See Article on Architecture.) 
^ever, so far as we can learn, have they made any use o€ 
oil as a medium for their pigments, but it must, of course, 
be remembered that the latter addition to the painter's 
Tesources was equally unknown in Europe down to the 
fifteenth century. 

The native pigments are very primitive, and their cakes, 
or sticks, of water-colour are on a par with the very cheapest 
toy outfits of an English juvenile. Their Chinese ink, 
however, is admirable and superior to any other in the world. 
Their pencils and brushes, also, leave little to be desired, 
being exactly adapted to their manner of work. It would 
be impossible, however, for an English water-colourist to 
produce his effects with such tools, and it would be idle to 
<3xpect the celestial to make any advance in art until he 
throws over his conservatism and adopts the paper, colours, 
and brushes of modern Europe. 

Religion, nature, history, and literature, have all in- 
:spired the Chinese artist with a UKjre or less varying degree 
of success. 

If implicit credence were to be given to the accounts of 
the Chinese themselves, painting was first practised B.C. 2 6()0, 
but the art in China lia? quite a veirerable enough' antiqtiity 
without ascribing to it such a hoary one. Mural decoration 
appears to have been the first application of it, and the 
Chinese Emperors frequently had the walls of their palaces 
so adorned. In the third century before the Christian era, 
paintings were made on bamboo and silk, whether pen and 
ink sketches, or in colour, it is difficult to say ; but a great 
impetus was given to the art, when, in the first century of 
our era, paper was invented. 

The first painter of whose labours mc possess any 
■definite record, belongs to the third century of the 
Christian era, over six hundred years after the period of 
Zeuxis, thougii Dr Anderson, from wlumv we quote, imfornis 
us, that a passing allusion to a portrait is found in the 
works of Confucius. The same authority says that the 
Oliinese must have attained to sonic profi:;iency in the art 



ART. 51 

of drawing before the Buddhist era : it is probable that 
the liigher development of painting in China was due to 
the influence exercised by specimens of Indian and Greek 
art introduced with the Buddhist religon. At the head 
of the list of Chinese painters stands then the name of 
Ts'ao Fuh-hing, the memory of those who preceded him 
liaving been lost, a retainer of the Emperor Wu Sun K'iian 
(A.D. 24-0-251). He was famous for Buddhist pictures and 
sketches of Dragons, and he is the hero of the marvellous 
story of the fly. Another story is that of a dragon which was 
painted by him and preserved until the Sung dynasty, when 
it produced rain in a time of drought. The second artist 
Avhose name has been preserved is tliat of Chang Sang-yiu. 
He painted Buddhist pictures for the devout monarch Wu 
Ti' (A.D. 502-5i9). Anderson thus writes concerning him:— 
' It is doubtful whether any of his works are now in 
existence, but his style has been handed down by followers, 
amongst whom arc numbered many famous masters of the 
brush.' Another wonderful dragon story is narrated of him. 
It 'credits him with the delineation of a dragon of such 
miraculous semblance to ••nature" that with the final 
touches the pictured monster b3camo suddenly inspired with 
life, and in the midst of sable clouds and deafening peals of 
thunder, burst through the walls to vanish into space ' 

The second epoch commences some time after the intro- 
duction of Buddhism into China. This religion exerted a 
beneficent effect on the stagnant state of ancient art with 
the new vistas it opened out, and the new fields for fresh 
achievements. Buddhism was vigorous in those days, and 
Buddhist monasteries were multiplied to such an enormous 
extent, that in A.D. 845 there were more than four millions 
of them. They were schools of literature and art, and many 
paintings were executed on long rolls of silk illustrative 
of the life and death of the founder of Buddhism and 
Buddhistic subjects. 

Other schools arose which also devoted themselves to 
religious, as well as other kinds of art. Between A.D. 265 
and A.D. 618. Chinese authors mention about five hundred 

D 2 



52 THINGS CHINESE. 

painters of celebrity, in addition to those of the religious- 
school. Besides the subjects belonging more especially to- 
the latter, the delineation of the human face, of the animal 
creation, and of landscape, engaged tlie attention of the artist. 
One example alone may be mentioned as an instance of the 
high position which art held at that period: — One of the 
members of Mo Ti's (AD. 502-550), Privy Council was 
appointed to adorn the Imperial Temples with paintings. 

When we come to the seventh century, we find two 
brothers, famous painters, named Yen Li-teh and Yen 
Li-pun, the latter of whom is especially remembered for a 
series of historical portrait-studies of ancient paragons of 
loyalty and learning. 

Wu Tao-tsz is the name which merits most attention. 
in the eighth century. He attracted the notice of the 
Emperor Ming Hwang, ' with whom he remained in high 
favour till his death. His style is said to have been formed 
upon that of Chang Sang-yiu, whose spirit was believed to 
have reappeared upon earth in the person of his follower. 
His chief renown was won in religious art, but his land- 
scapes were remarkable for picturesque feeling and strength 
of design, aiid of his life-like portraitures of animals.' 

Also worthy of mention, though not of such renown, 
are the names of Wang Wei, a landscape painter holding 
high rank in court (A.l). 713-742), and Han Kan, ?i protege 
of the last, remembered chiefly for his painting of horses. 
Amongst other names, famous during the T"'ang dynasty as 
painters, may be mentioned Li Tsien and his son Li Chung- 
ho, noted for drawings of figures and horses; Yuen Ying, 
best known for his minutely drawn representations of insect 
life; Kiang Tao-yin and Li Cheng, landscape painters. 

The artistic appreciation of natural scenery existed in 
China many centuries before landscape played a higher part 
in the European picture than that of an accessory. 

The third epoch of Chinese art commences with the 
T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-960) and ends Avith that of the 
Sung. At the beginning of this period, Chinese painting- 
divides itself into the northern and southern schools, sa 



ART. 53 

named from the respective parts of the country in which 
those belonging to them resided, the chief distinction 
between the two being that the southern Avas less trammelled 
by the canons of art to which the northern school rigidly 
adhered. To the former belonged Ouan Mo-kie, described as 
one of the most original artists of China. Like many of 
China's artists, he was not painter alone, but poet and 
musician too, for the beauties of nature's landscapes, which 
were his special forte, were not only interpreted by his 
brush, but sung by his muse as Avell. He reduced his 
methods to writing, and for two centuries afterwards, viz.: — 
'the eighth and ninth, they led the artistic world to go direct 
to nature as their mistress and model. The most brilliant 
painter of this epoch is Au To-huan. ^Mountains with 
pagodas, convents, and Buddhistic scenes were what he 
delighted to paint. Daring the ninth and tenth centuries, 
the painting, in all their various movements, of animals and 
flowers, occupied the attention of all the artists, but at the 
same time the Buddhist school still pursued its course and 
produced works of great merit. In the tenth century, two 
artists of the first rank deserve mention — King Hao and 
Hoang Tsuan. There are two specimens of the latter's style 
in the British Museum. 

The fourth epoch is that of the Sung dynasty, and is 
marked by a rejuvenescence of literature and art after the 
troubled periods which immediately preceded it; but owing to 
the disfavour under which Buddhism fell, the religious school 
of art also lapsed into a state of decadence in the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, though a few artists of great ability 
are still to be found in this branch. The Sung dynasty 
was rich in famous artists. We may call attention to Muh 
Ki, Liang Chi, Kwoh Hi, the Emperor Hwei Tsung, Li 
Lungyen, Ma Yuiin, Hia Kwei, Yuh Kien, Hwui Su, and 
Mih YuiJn-chang. Ngan Hwui, who lived in the thirteenth 
century, is usually associated with the great painters of the 
Sung dynasty. The school of landscape artists, started on 
the right track under the former epoch, rose to the highest 
point of art. The beauties of spring-time with its joyous- 



54 THINGS CHINESE. 

bursting of bud, leaf, and flower; the sweets of summer; the 
sadder traits of autumn, and the snow-clad beauties of 
winter, all engaged their brushes. Amongst the masters of 
this style may be mentioned the two Li Cheng, one the 
chief of the northern school, and the other belonging to the 
southern; the former was followed by numerous artists during 
the eleventh, twelfth, and part of the thirteenth centuries, 
but unfortunately, in the devotion to their master, they 
began to copy the style of the man rather than to follow 
him in his sincere admiration of nature herself In conjunc- 
tion with a new tendency, which manifested itself, each 
school, each studio, took as a speciality the production of a 
certain picturesque detail, and ceased to see landscape in its 
whole. As examples of this tendency may be instanced the 
two brothers. Ma Yuen and iMa K"'on, avIio confined themselves 
to pines, cypresses, cedars, and steep rocks; another only 
cared to reproduce the effects of snow ; others confined their 
attention to the feathery bamboo with its stiff stems, tender 
green leaves, and the graceful curves of the topmost boughs ; 
another speciality was clusters of flowers in the spaces 
between glazed tiles on a roof, — surely a singular taste; 
bull-finches, bamboos, and rocks are named as the objects 
on which Li Ti exercised his brush; snow-laden pines and 
clumps of trees were what another artist loved to reproduce ; 
while plum-trees and flowers were what Chong Jen singled 
out as worthy of his skill ; other jjainters had the good sense 
not to confine themselves to one speciality. Some wonderful 
productions of birds, life-like and natural, were painted 
during this period. 

The fifth epoch is that of the Yuan, or Mongol dynasty. 
The Mongol conquest of China stirred up the comparatively 
stagnant pool of Chinese native life, and introduced a stream 
of vivifying influence from the more western nations. Other 
styles of art were introduced to the Chinese, who had for 
some centuries seen but little from outer lands to inspire 
their genius, or spur on their adaptive eff"orts. These influ- 
ences from abroad, more felt in other branches of art, did not 
make such an impression on painting as one might suppose,. 



ART. 55- 

though some traces of such influence are to be found- 
Coupled with this, there was also a renaissance of Buddhism, 
which the tide of Mongol rule brought in with it, and which 
made itself felt in the artistic world, as well as elsewhere. 
The divisions, which we have noted in the Sung period, still 
continued. The characteristic of the painters under the 
Yuan dynasty is the taste for bright and brilliant colours. 
A tiger and cvibs, executed by one of the artists of this, 
dynasty, is to be seen in the British Museum. 

The sixth epoch is that of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368- 
1643). Painting benefited in the first years of this dynasty 
by the improvements in technical art which took place, though 
a<rain no^t to such an extent as in some of the oth<3r branches 
of art, and it, during this epoch, began to decline from about 
the middle of the dynasty. Consequently, it is convenient 
to divide this epoch into two periods, lasting respectively 
from A.D. 1368 to 1488, and from 1488 to 1643. The style 
of this first period of Ming dynasty ait may be characterised 
as without much originality, but with other characteristics 
of first importance : a style of art without great eminence, 
but without decay. 

There were, however, as late as the fifteenth and sixteenth, 
centuries, many painters of great merit; but tlie best of these, 
including Lin Lian^j and Lii Ki, were avowed imitators of the older 
masters. The one exception to the general decay in later centuries 
was a style which, so far as we are aware, numbered only two 
important followers— Ch'eng Chung-fu and Li-kin Kii-sze '■' '' '•■. 
These artists, seeking better results in the painting of portraits, than 
had been found attainable by pursuing the caligraphic ideal, ventured 
to represent the outlines and shadows of the face as they saw them. 

In the second period of this epoch begins the decline of 

Chinese painting. The causes of this decadence commenced, 

centuries previously, when, for a study of nature at first hand,. 

was substituted a servile imitation of some master-hand, 

whose inspiration was derived from the faithful communion 

with nature herself, which his disciples neglected. That snare 

of the Chinese in so many branches of their learning and. 

knowledge, the blind following of set rn^es and canons, again 

showed itself in their reproduction of the phases and aspects 

of nature in her revelations to man, for instead of lifting up 



56 THINGS CHINESE. 

their eyes and seeing the fields ripe for a harvest, ready for 
those who would reap it, they contented themselves with the 
achievements of the past, and let the golden opportunities 
slip. 

The difference between these two periods (the first and 
second halves of the Ming dynasty) is marked, and the 
beginning of a new style is seen, which prevailed in the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

The seventh epoch is that of the present dynasty, and 
under it the decadence, previously foreshadowed and com- 
menced in the preceding dynasty, becomes iin fait accompli. 
The absence of inspiration is seen, and for it is substituted 
the use of certain illustrated works, which serve as diction- 
aries to the aspirant for fame, from which the painter 
copies the different figures or objects, already prepared for 
his use in all possible situations of ordinary Chinese life ; 
he has degenerated into a copyist, for it only remains for 
him to group them. Under the third Empei'or, Yung Ching 
(A.D. 1723-1736), there was a tendency towards improvement, 
but the b;Hinds of tradition were not burst : it sttjpped short 
of a renovation of the whole art. The Jesuit missionaries 
at Peking attempted to introduce the principles of Avestern 
art as applied to painting, but, though they executed 
numerous works, the Chinese were not far enough advanced 
to adopt such a complete reversal of all their preconceived 
ideas and canons of art. In the south, George Chinnery, an 
English artist, who painted many scenes of Chinese life, 
exerted, in the first half of the present century, some influence 
on the painters patronised by the foreign residents of Canton 
and Macao ; and the copying by these of foreign portraits 
has doubtless modified their modes of expression and im- 
proved their style to some extent, but the body of (Chinese 
painters has not been affected thereby. 

In conclusion, to sum up the whole matter, we perhaps 
cannot do better than supplement the quotations we have 
already made from ^i^cle^'son by another one : — 

There is, perhaps, no section of art that has been so completely 
misapprehended in Europe as the pictorial art of China. For us the 



ART. 57 

■Chinese painter, past or present, is but a copyist who imitates with 
laborious and indiscriminating exactness whatever is laid before him, 
xejoices in the display of as many and as brilliant colours as his 
subject and remuneration will permit, and is original only in the 
creation of monstrosities. Nothing could be more contrary to fact 
than this impression, if we omit from consideration the work executed 
for the foreign market — work which every educated Chinese would 
disown. The old masters of the Middle Kingdom, who, as a body, 
united grandeur of conception with immense power of execution, 
cared little for elaboration of detail, and, except in Buddhist pictures, 
sought their best effects in the simplicity of black and white, or in 
the most subdued of chromatic harmonies. Their ail was defective, 
but not more so than that of Europe down to the end of the thirteenth 
century. Technically, they did not go beyond the use of water- 
colours, but in range and quality of pigments, as in mechanical 
command of pencil, they had no reason to fear compai'ison with their 
contemporaries. They had caught only a glimpse of the laws of 
chiaroscuro and perspective, but the want of science was counterpoised 
by more essential elements of artistic excellence. 

In motives they lacked neither variety nor elevation. As land- 
scape painters they anticipated their European brethren by over a 
score of generations, and created transcripts of scenery that for 
breadth, atmosphere, and picturesque beauty can scarcely be 
surpassed. In their studies of the human figure, although their 
work was often rich in vigour and expression, they certainly fell 
immeasurably below the Greeks ; but to counterbalance this defect, 
no other artists, except those of Japan, have ever infused into the 
delineations of bird life one tithe of the vitality and action to be seen 
in the Chinese portraitures of the crow, the sparrow, the crane, and 
a hundred other varieties of the feathered race. In flowers the 
Chinese were less successful, owing to the absence of true chiaroscuro, 
but they were able to evolve a better picture out of a single spray of 
blossom than many a western painter from all the treasures of a 
conservatory. 

If we endeavour to compare the pictorial art of China with 
that of Europe, we must carry ourselves back to the days when the 
former was in its greatness. Of the art that preceded the T'ang 
dynasty we can say nothing. Like that of Polygnotus, Zeuxis, and 
Apelles, it is now represented only by traditions, which, if less precise 
in the former than in the latter case, are not less laudatory ; but it 
may be asserted that nothing produced by the painters of Europe 
between the seventh and thirteenth centuries of the Christian era 
approaches within any measurable distance of the great Chinese 
masters who gave lustre to the T'ang, Sung, and Yuen dynasties, 
nor — to draw a little nearer to modern times — is there anything in 
the religious art of Cimabue that would not appear tame and gi'aceless 
by the side of the Buddhistic compositions of Wu Tao-tsz, Li Lung- 
yen and Ngan Hwui. Down to the end of the Southern Empire in 
1279 A.D., the Chinese were at the head of the world in the art of 
painting, as in many things besides, and their nearest rivals were 
their own pupils, the Japanese "'' "'■■ •'■. Japanese culture has lent 
many elements of poetry and grace to the parent art [i.e., in Japan 



58 THINGS CHINESE. 

itself, not in China], in the Shi-j6 school it added something in touch ; 
and chiefly through the Yamato and U Kiyo-ye schools it contributed 
numberless original features in motive ; but in strength the palm 
must still rest with the iVIiddle Kingdom, and China may claim as its 
own every main artistic principle that guided the brushes of Kanaoka, 
Meicho and JVIotonobu. It is, indeed, often difficult for any but an 
expert to distinguish a work of the earliest Japanese leaders of the 
"Chinese school " from a Chinese picture, and many a design that 
adorns the modern porcelain and lacquer of Japan is to be traced 
almost line for line to a Chinese original of eight or nine centuries 
ago. * '■■' In the last hundred years, while the Chinese have 

been content to rest upon the achievements of their forefathers — 
who would despise them for it could they live again — the energy of 
their quondam pupils has brought Japan before the world as the 
sole heir to almost all that is most beautiful in the art of the great 
Turanian race. 

Tliidlta n'rovDiiouJed. — The Chapter on Art in Tradescant LayV, 
' The Chinese As They Are.' Most of the text books contain articles more 
or less meritorious, but one of the most interesting- and ai)preciative accounts 
is to be found in 'L'Art Chinois', bj' M. Faleologue, to which we are 
indebted for much of the information siven above. A most interesting 
nioiiojrraph on Chinese Art is to be f(nmd in the m;r:j;nificent volume 
entitled. "The Pictorial Arts of Japan,' by VV. Anderson. F.R.C.S., London, 
tSanipson. Low & Co., 1S8(). 

ASCENDING ON HIGH.— This half-feast, half-holi- 
day, brings itself more prominently int(^ the notice of the 
foreign resident in Hongkong than is the case with some 
of tlie other semi-religious observances of the Chinese. 
Ages ago, a Chinese received a warning that a dreadful 
catastrophe would happen to him and liis family. To avert 
it he escaped to the heights; and in commemoration of 
this event, on the ninth day of the ninth moon, many 
Chinese take a holiday or a few hours excursion to some 
neighbouring hill, or mountain. The Peak tramway in 
Hongkong, providing a convenient mode of reaching a summit, 
is largely availed of, to the wonderment of the English 
traveller, who is at a loss to understand why such an exodus 
of natives from the town is taking place. About 3,000 
usually take advantage of this convenient mode of ascent, 
though on a wet day (such as occurred in 1894) the 
number may be reduced to one half of that, trams running 
continuously throughout the day for their accommodation. 
Dressed in their gala-day best, with silks and satins galore, 
and with happy faces, family groups may be seen wandering 



ASIATIC SOCIETY. 51> 

along the mountain roa,cls, while troups of friends and 
acquaintances mny be noticed chatting their loudest and 
enjoying the treat of a whiff of fresh air after months of 
confinement in narrow streets and close shops. Up at the 
Peak itself, the base of the flag-staff is black witli human 
beings, who, from tlie distance, look like ants on a lump 
of sugar; and on the road slowly meandering their zig-zag 
course up the hill are clusters of pedestrians; other black 
specks on the path are home-bound Avanderers wearily 
wending their downward course, though many patronise 
the tram again and besiege the empty cars like excursionists 
in England, the disappointed ones, who have to Avait for 
the next trip, nearly blocking the station. 

This Ch'ung Yong festival is looked upon more as a 
partial holiday than as a feast in the strict sense of the 
term. Many Chinese, though per]ia])s not five per cent of 
the Avhole population, avail themselves of this opi^ortunity 
for a little relaxation from business; those who do so being 
such as are blessed Avith leisure, or who desire an ouling, or 
Avho are specially superstitious. In connection A\ith its 
celebration a feAv fly kites from these elevated po.sitions. 
The Avriter, himself, has seen remnants of kites at the Peak 
and the block-house; he has also seen joss-paper lying about, 
though, on the Avhole, fcAv make it a day of worship. 

ASIATIC SOCIETY (China Branch of), was started 
in Hongkong in 1848, and continued in existence until 1859. 
Before it was defunct, a ' Shanghai Literary and Scientific 
Society ' Avas commenced in 1857, Avhich Avas shortly after 
changed into the ' North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
Society;' a fcAv years since the Avord 'North' Avas dropped: 
out of the title. These societies have published a number 
of 'Transactions,' forming a set of some scores of thick 
and thin hroclmres full of most interesting and valuable 
information on China and Chinese subjects, the result of 
much research and study. The present 'China Branch of 
the Royal Asiatic Society ' holds its meetings in Shanghai; 
the membershijo is considerable; the subscription is five 



60 THINGS CHINESE. 

dollars a year, which may be commuted by a payment of 
iifty dollars, entitling the subscriber to be a life member. 
Those who wish to belong to the Society should apply to 
the Secretary in Shanghai, ^rembers receive the 'Journal 
of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society ' free, and 
have the privilege of purchasing back numbers at a reduction 
of 40 °/q on the published prices, while the public are 
allowed a discount of 10 °/o if a complete set of the ' Journal/ 
as far as can be supplied, is purchased. The annual sub- 
scription to the latter, for the Journal, is f5. A classified 
index to the articles in the Journal of the N. C. Br. of 
the R. A. S., from the formation of that society to the 
31st December 1874, is to be f(nind in the Journal, New 
Series, No. IX. 

AUDIENCE. — During recent years the audience by the 

Chinese sovereign of foreign ambassadors, envoys, &c., has 

been one of the burning questions of the day in the Far 

East. As a writer in the •' Times ' well says : — 

'Perhaps, in course of time, they [the Chinese] will begin to see 
the absurdity of shutting up their Emperor from the foreign ministers 
accredited to him. There may have been good and substantial 
reasons, from the Chinese point of view, in refusing to present 
foreigners to the Empress Uowager when she acted as Regent ; but 
there is no reason whatever — even a Chinese reason — for persisting 
in keeping the Emperor and the foreign ministers apart. In the last 
century the Emperor of the present dynasty received foreigners, and 
condescended to be instructed by them. The present Emperor 
receives his own ministers in audience every day, and is not treated 
as a semi-divine being, on whose face ordinary mortals may not look, 
as the Mikado of Japan was in former times. There is no reason in 
principle or Chinese practice why the sovereign should not receive 
the ministers at his Court, and, not to speak of earlier Emperors, 
there is the precedent of T'ung Chi, his predecessor, who granted an 
audience to the Corps Diplonmliqiie. It is the absence of reason 
about the business, the obstinate persistence in withholding this usual 
mark of mutual respect, that renders it so irritating.' 

To get some idea of wliat the Chinese standpoint of view 

was, it must be remembered that through ages past it has 

been the theory — a theory well sustained by practice, and 

where practice failed to support it, well bolstered up by 

Chinese historians — that China was the Suzerain State, and 

all other kingdoms its vassals, who, if they did not pay 



AUDIENCE. 61 

tribute, were in a state of reb;^llion, and should present this 
open and visible sign of fealty. All presents from other 
sovereigns were styled 'tribute'; and to such a length was 
this carried, that when China was divided by two reigning 
houses, and when the so-called vassal ivingdom was in reality 
the leading state in China, and the so-called Imperial family 
ruled over but a small moiety of the Empire, yet all presents 
from the more powerful state were classed as tribute in 
history, while the presents from the Emperor, Avhich, as 
given to a more influential state by a weaker and inferior 
one, were in reality more entitled to the name of tribute, 
were classed as presents. It must further be remembered 
that China has been the leading nation of Eastern Asia 
for many centuries past, Avhile the rest of the world was 
comparatively unknown; all surrounding nations have been 
their inferiors, who have looked up to the Middle Kingdom 
as the centre from which their letters, literature, knowledge, 
art, and science have all originated and emanated. It is 
owing to all these causes, and for all these reasons that the 
preposterous claim of the Chinese has been founded. 

The receiving of all their envoys and ambassadors at the 
Courts of Europe, to which they have been accredited for 
the last twenty years, Avas not sufficient, in face of these, 
antiquated views, to move them from their position; for, 
judged from the same standpoint, it was only to be expected 
that China's envoys should be received with every mark of 
respect and honour — nay more, their theories would natur- 
ally lead them to expect that they should be received 
with that homage accorded to them by their neighbours^ 
such, for instance, as by Corea in past times — a homage 
rendered to them as representatives , of the Son of Heaven 
— a homage given by virtue of the claim of the latter to 
universal sovereignty. 

Whatever may have been the private opinion of the 
handful of enlightened officials, the belief held by the ma- 
jority of them, namely, the theory already enunciated above, 
had to be upheld at every cost; for such beliefs die hard in 
China. And if the pressure of foreign opinion rendered 



u/ 



<)2 THINGS ClimBSE. 

necessary some sliow of alteration, plausible excuses were 
put forward, or subterfuges resorted to; and eventually we 
find the representatives of the most powerful nations on the 
earth received twice — long ago once, and again in 1891, 
after years of a refusal to grant it — in an Audience Hall, 
especially reserved for the audience of tributary nations, a\ ith 
■only a statement, on the last occasion, that such should 
not be the case again. The Emperor, by a decree of the 
12th December, 1890, expressed his intention of fixing a day 
every year for tlie reception with honour^ of all the Foreign 
Ministers resident in Peking. After the general reception, 
mentioned above, the Austrian-Hungarian Minister was 
j*eceived in another out-building, which was also associated 
with humiliation. 

The Chinese seemed indisposed, to put it mildly, to 
receive Foreign Ambassadors in the ImpeTial Palace. Out- 
buildings were made to do duty for these functions. The 
point, of course, was that until the Chinese Emperor received 
Foreign Ambassadors on exactly the same footing that our 
■.Sovereign receives the Chinese acredited to tlie Court of 
St. James, and until every disposition to shirk this proper 
mode of dealing with the Audience Question was gone it 
-^vould still remain unsettled. The future only will reveal 
whether the reservations, equivocations, and evasions of the 
past will be resorted to again ad nauseam. At the same 
time it is worthy of note, as a sign of progress, that the 
iiumiliating ceremony of 'kow-tow' has not been demanded 
at the last receptions, for the very good reason, doubtless, 
that the Chinese are well aware it would not be performed. 
And as a straw showing a slight change in the current of the 
rstupid pride and arrogance of tiie past, it is pleasing to see 
that the Czarewitch, on hiii visit, a few years since, to the 
high officials in Canton, had an Imperial-yellow sedan-chair 
provided for him — an honour never previously granted to a 
European, and' an honour only reserved in China for the 
Teigning family. 

The Audience Question would appear to be approaching 
:a . satisfactory solution. As indicative of some of the first 



BAMBOO. 63 

signs of this change, for the better, may ba noticed the fact 
that the bite British ^[inister to Peking (Mr. O'Connor), 
presented his credentials in person to the Emperor in the 
Cheng Kuaug-tien and not in the 'Han of Tributary Nations/ 
The Austrian Ambassador hafl previously also been received 
in a proper manner, and the other lepiesentatives of their 
respective countries have since been accorded receptions more 
befitting the nations whoso interests they have in hand than 
has been the case for many years past. 

7>.^.1/Z>00.— What iron is to the English, such is the 
useful bamboo to tlie Chinese. Not by any means that the 
use of iron is unknown in China, far from it; it is largely 
used for many purposes; but bamboo is even more 
extensively employed, not only for the purposes that iron 
is ill fitted for, but also for many for which that metal is 
well adapted. Bamboo has been called the universal 
material. There are few things which cannc^t be made of 
it. The question is not what it is used for, but what is it 
not used for; and after a lengthened residence in China 
with the discovery every now and then of some fresh article 
of bamboo, the answer, with but little reservation, would 
appear to be that it is it?ed for nearly evei-ything. 'J'o the 
Chinese it is, perhaps, the most valuable product of their 
land. They excel in its manufacture. The last thing that 
one would suppose it to be fit for is food : the hard silicious 
culms lock anything but tempting to an epicure, it is, 
however, not these in their hardened mature state, but the 
fresh young sprouts as they come out of the ground that, 
cooked till tender, form a fine vegetable, or, otherwise treated, 
make a pickle, or comfit. The graceful slender stems — 
strong, but light — serve an infinitude of purposes: the frame- 
work of mat-sheds is almost entirely constructed of them, 
whether they be the gigantic temporary structures erected for 
religious festivals which tower above all the other buildings 
(See Article on Amusements); or the more modest dwellings 
of the poorer classes ; or the complicated network of scaffolding 
round the rising house or the building under repair. Their 



ei THINGS CHINESE. 

long tubular structure adapts them admirably for water-pipes^ 
when the thick septum at each joint has been brokers 
through. The street-coolie, or tlie chair-coolie, wuuld be 
badly off without the bamboo: it provides carrying-pjles for 
the first, whilst the whole frame-work of the sedan-chair, and 
the shafts are often of this material. The boatman's pole for 
his boat, the ribs for the sailor's mat sail, and the sampan 
woman's awning for her small craft, are all constructed or 
the bamboo. Could the bamboo age that now reigns in China 
be suddenly abolished by some magician's enchantment, the 
whole of the fairies that ever peopled Fairyland would find 
their hands more than full to provide substitutes for all the 
household articles, the agricultural implements, the toys for 
the children, and the innumerable objects of every-day use 
which are made of this ubiquitous plant. The roots make 
the divining blocks lying on every temple altar, while the 
divining sticks that keep them company are slender slips, 
of bamboo contained in a bamboo .vase; the mats for the 
worshippers to kneel on are made of its dried leaves; the- 
incense sticks have a thin slip of bamboo, round the upper 
part of which adhere the fragrant spices brought from Araby" 
the blest and the Sandal-wood Islands (Sandwich Islands). 
We can scarcely keep our eyes off bamboo in China whether 
in-doors or out. Rain-hats or sun-hats, large sized and 
small (the large ones having the spread of an umbrella, of 
which the handle is the man or woman who uses it, or 
when a youngster claps one on his head, we have a walking 
mushroom, so overshadowed is he by his gigantic head-gear)^ 
the policeman's or soldier's conical small hat, constructed 
to ward off strokes and parry blows — these are all made of 
bamboo. The native umbrella, handle and ribs and spring,, 
is ingeniously constructed of it as well, while oiled paper 
serves in the place of silk or cotton. The Robinson Crusoe- 
like rain-coat of the extreme South is made of leaves — a 
garment of leaves — of this gigantic grass sewn together. 
The old man's staff, the blind beggar's stick, the sewing^ 
woman's pole to which to fasten her seam, the washer- 
woman's clothes-lines, are bamboo. The rake of the farmer^ 



BAMBOO. 65 

the foot-rule of tlie carpenter and tailor, the measures of 
the rice shops, and many chopsticks are made of it. Rags 
are too precious in China to be ^\■asted on the manufacture 
of paper, for when the decent garment begins to show the 
wear and tear of the merchant jji'ii^ce, it descends in the 
social scale, serving in turn the shopman and coolie, and 
finally, when all i-espectability is gone out of it, forms a 
covering for the wretched beggar, if any ability to cover 
remains in it at all. In lieu of rags, the bamboo, soaked 
for a length of time and reduced to pulp, then dried and 
made into sheets, furnishes paper for the student's class- 
book, the merchant's account-buoks, and the author's scrib- 
bling paper. The latter writes with a pen, the handle of 
which is a fine bamboo tube; the vase for holding his pens 
is of the same material. Chairs, tables, stools, conches^ 
ornaments, stands, images, lantern-handles, canes, instruments 
of torture, handles of spears, cages for birds, hen-coops, 
musical instruments (such as flutes and fifes and fiddles, &c.), 
pillows, dutch-wives, ladders, lattice-Avork, bars of doors and 
windows, primitive-looking lamps and lanterns, nutmeg 
graters, pepper-dusters, floats, watering-wheels, rafts, bridges, 
watch-towers, tobacco and opium-pipes, ropes, window-blinds, 
curtains, brooms^ brushes, baskets of all and every kind, 
cricket-traps, snares to catch game, combs, tallies for 
checking cargo, summonses for secret society meetings,, the 
frame-work and handles of fans, are all of this cane ; but we 
must stop, or we should have to make an inventory of much 
that is in common use by John Chinaman, and which he 
would sadly want Avere he deprived of his bamboo. It even 
supplies him Avith medicine in the shape of tabasheer, a 
silicious concretion found inside the joints; while the green 
outer surface of the young bamboo is scraped oflf and used 
as a cooling drink (being boiled \\\i\\ water) for fever in 
combination with other medicines, or alone. The green bvids 
(of the leaves) are also employed in the same way and for 
the same purpose. Order is maintained throughout the 
whole empire by it, and a sprig of it is borne in the van 
of the funeral procession. 

E 



'Throughout life the Chniaman is almost dependent upon it for 
support, nor does it leave him until it carries him to his last resting 
place on the hill-side, and even then in company with the cypress, 
juniper and pine it waves over and marks his tomb.' 

Inhere are many varieties uf the bamboo; some twenty 
or more in the south of China; one Chinese writer describes 
sixty varieties. They are of different sizes and colours — 
green, yellow, and black — with large and small leaves, from 
the tiny dwarf bamboo which, Avhen full grown, is only large 
enousrh to form a low hedo-e, and is o-lorified with the name 
of the Goddess of Mercy Bamboo, up to the larger sizes, 
whose feathery sprays rise to a height of fifty or even some- 
times seventy feet. It is a most graceful object, touching 
with rare beauty every few yards of the Chinese landscape, 
a,nd has inspired many a poet and artist. If the bamboo 
is kind to the Chinaman, he returns it with interest, as some 
of his best work is bestowed upon it, and it forms the motif 
in numerous works of art. What would many a hideous 
carving be but for its saving grace; the paintc- would be 
lost but for its lines of beauty, while its tawny yellow or 
bright green stems and waving top plumes of duller green, 
the whole object, so delicate in tint and shape, soft of hue 
* * *, indefinite in outline * '^' *, like wonderful 
grey-green lace against the opalescent sky, appeals not only 
to the raosk aesthetic side of the Celestial's nature, but also 
to that of the matter-of-fact Western traveller. 

The flowering of the bamboo is considered to be a very rare 
occurrence. Once in eighteen, twenty, and even twenty-five years 
does it flower, and still less seldom does it produce seed. Externally 
the seed resembles a pear in shape and is of a deep olive greea 
colour, gradually changing to a dark or rifle green. On opening the 
seed longitudinally, a thick coat of coriaceous matter is found covering 
the germinal centre. It has a strong vegetable smell. 

In two recent years, has the bamboo flowered in Hong- 
kong, though ordinarily one may live many years in China 
without noticing it. A spray of it in flower looks some- 
what like a head of oats, but much smaller. 

Boohs recommended. — 'Ling Nam, by Kev. B. C. Henrv. M.A., D.D., 
pp. Ill, 135, 136. 'The Middle Kingdom; by liev. S. Wells Williams. 
L.L.D., Vol. I., pp. .358-360. An interesting account appears in the ' China 
Mail' ind Hongkong Daily Press,' of tlie 9tli and 10th June, 1893 
respectively, of an eccentric mandarin who was about building a house and 
furnishing it with nothing but bamboo. 



BANKS AND BANK-NOTES. 67 

BANKS AND BANK—NOTES.— There are no 

'chartered banks in China, but private banks are very 
common. If we include branches of the same establishment, 
rthere were a few years since, 300 in Tientsin. Their number 
is large in proportion to the business of a town, their 
capital, in many cases, also being small, amounting to a few 
'thousand taels. The native banks do not appear to have 
hit upon the device of cheques ; a foreign bank in Hongkong, 
the National Bank of China, having been the first to 
introduce these convenient orders for money to the Chinese 
in their own language in that Colony. The native banks, 
however, issue circular letters of credit to travel through 
ithe Empire, and the system of remittance by drafts is as 
complete as in Europe; the rates charged are high, however. 
IPromissory Notes are largely availed of by the native banks 
and their customers in their dealings with each other. A 
very carious feature in these transactions is that the interest 
is often not stated in the note itself, but is written on the 
•envelope in which the note is enclosed, though in the 
trdinary joromissory note it is inserted in the note itself. 

As Chinese cash, the common copper mite and only 
Jaiown coin amongst the Chinese, is lieavy and difficult to 
transport in any quantities, it was only natural that, keen 
merchants as they are, the Chinese should have early 
invented bank notes. The date seems to have been about 
A.D. 800. The earliest specimen known to exist in 
any country was purchased in 1890 by the British 
Xuseum, where it may be now seen by anyone in the 
.King's Library placed under a glass case. The label 
attached to it states that it is 300 years earlier than the 
'establishment (at Stockhohn) of the first European bank 
which issued notes. This wonderful note is abovit the size of 
a piece of foolscap paper and is almost blackish in colour. 
It was issued durins^ the reign of Huns: Wu, A. J). 1368-1399. 
Each money shop has its own device, though the general 
features are the same : an ornamental border surrounds the 
■oblong paper, and since the Chinese printing is in columns, 
the greatest length is from top to bottom and not from side 

E 2 



G8 THINGS CHINESE. 

to side as in the English bank-note; the name of the bank 
or shop issuing it is put in large characters, transversely,, 
as a heading; below this are several rows of characters, the 
centre one often being somewhat to this effect — 'on 

production of this note pay cash,' and the other columns 

containing necessary particulars, such as the number of 
the note and date, &c. ; besides which, some moral sentences 
very often adorn the note. 

'The check on over-issue of notes lies in the control exercised 
by the clearing-house of every city, where the standing of each bank 
is known by its operations. The circulation of the notes is limited 
in some cases to the street or neighbourhood wherein the estab- 
lishment is situated ; often the payee has a claim on the payer of a 
bill for a full day if it be found to be counterfeit or worthless — a 
custom which involves a good deal of scribbling on the back "•' '■' '■- 
to certify the names. Proportionally few counterfeit notes are met 
with, owing more to the limited range of the notes, making it easy 
to ask the bank, which recognises its own paper •- "••■. Their 

face value ranges from one to a hundred tiao, or strings of cash, but 
their worth depends on the exchange between silver and cash, and 
as this fluctuates daily, the notes soon find their way home. 

A tlao is 1,000 cash, but the author possesses a set of 
cancelled Poochow notes ranging in value from 100 cash, 
to 1.000 cash and !|il. Great inconvenience is sometimes 
caused by the failure of tlie firms which have issued this 
paper money. 

These bank-notes are not used in the extreme south of 
China, though they are very common at Foochow and in, 
tlie north. 

The issue of these notes at the present day is due 
entirely to private enterprise, but the Government have acted 
as bankers more than once in this one respect. Marco Polo, 
the celebrated Venetian traveller, was in China at such a 
time and, speaking of Kublai Khan's piarchases, he thus 
describes them : — 

' So he buys such a cjuantity of those precious things every year 
that his treasure is endless, while all the while the money he pays- 
away costs him nothing at all. If any of those pieces of paper are 
spoilt, the owner carries them to the mint, and by paying three per 
cent on the value he gets new pieces in exchange.' 

The total issue during Kublai Khan's reign of thirty- 
four 5'ears, amounted, it is estimated, to the sum of 



BETROTHAL. 69 

:§624<, 135,500. This,, however, Avas carried too far by the 
subsequent Mougol Emperors, and added fuel to the flame 
•of discontent felt by the Chinese against their foreign 
rulers, yet the new Chinese dynasty (the Ming) which 
•succeeded to the throne, were obliged at first to issue notes 
for nearly a hundred years. The present dynasty of 
]Manchus has also had recourse to them during the great 
Tai-p'ing rebellion, but their circulation did not extend 
beyond the metropolis. 

JjiHilix rrnnn mended. — "WilliainsV • Middle Kingdom.' Vol. JI. [)p. >n5, 8(5. 
WesleA'iiu Methodist MagaziiK^ -July ISiMJ. contains a. woodcut of a Chinese 
bank-note. Sir also Iloleonibe's • The Eeal Chinaman." \i\). :U8-:-i4G. 

BETROTHAL. — Betrothals are generally negotiated — 
for they are matters of business and not of sentiment — •by 
the go-betA\eens, who are mostly women and who make it 
their business to find out a suitable parti. They are 
commissioned by the parents, the parties themselves having, 
as a general rule, no voice in the matter, often being of too 
tender an age to understand what it means. Unborn infants 
are even sometimes informally betrothed, i.e., the parents 
agreeing that the children when born, if of opposite sexes. 
shall in future life be husband and Avife ; this is carried so 
far that married couples occasionally promise that if they 
ever have children of different sexes they shall be given in 
marriage to one another; but the usual age for betrothals 
in many parts of tlie country is ten, twelve, or even older. 

The go-betweens are generally women of the status of 
elderly servants who have the free entree into the houses of 
those desirous of contracting matrimonial alliances, in the 
same manner that an ordinary broker Avoukl — in fact they are 
marriage brokers. Sometimes they are specially sent for by 
the parties desirous of their services, and at other times they 
visit families unsolicited on account of having received 
information. These go-betweens have a hand in the matter 
from beginning to end, and are responsible for the proper 
•conduct of the whole affair; they are not employed only to 
brins: the families contractinsr marriage tosrether. The first 



70 ' THINGS CHINESE. 

ceremonials consist in the :jo-between beins; commissioned' 
by the young man's family to obtain from the girFs family 
her name and the moment of her birth; this is done that the 
horoscope of the two may be examined by a fortune-teller in 
order to ascertain whether the proposed alliance will be a 
happy one. These particulars are written on paper, and 
should the fortune-teller give a favourable replv to the 
inquiries, the second ceremonial takes place, that of sending 
the go-between back with an offer of marriage. The assent 
in writing is asked for, and forms the third ceremonial. 
Fourthly, presents are sent to the girl's parents. Fifthly, 
the go-between requests them to choose a lucky day for the- 
Avedding. The preliminaries are concluded by the bride- 
groom going in a procession to bring the bride home. The 
Chinese speak of three covenants and six ceremonies, which 
may be stated to be as follows :-— 
The three covenants are : — 

The Contract of Marriage, 

The Receipt of Betrothal ^loney, 

The Deed of the Delivery of the Bride. 
The six ceremonies are : — 

The Small Presents. 

The Inquiry for the Name of the Bride, 

The Payment of the Betrothal Money, 

The Request to fix the Day, 

The Sendins: of a Goose. 

The Fetching of the Bride. 
Betrothal presents are called clrd lai, tea presents, or 
ceremonials. They consist of a present of tea^ cakes, betel- 
nuts, and money, given by the future husband's family to the 
family of his future wife. The go-between takes, or accom- 
panies, these presents (to the girl's family) which are carried 
in hop, or round flat boxes made of wood. A few dollars are 
also put into the boxes. With concubines, money alone is 
most generally given. The Chinese have a phrase, sJiik iimi 
■ch'd lai, which means that these ceremonial presents have 
been accepted and eaten, and consecjuently that the daughter 
is betrothed. If there are no presents, there is no betrothal. 



BETROTHAL. 71 

Betrothals are most binding: and it \v(juld seem that 
on the woman's side they cannot be broken without the 
consent of the man, accompanied by a money salve. No 
misconduct, however flagrant on the side of the youth at 
least, is held to be a release from the covenant. 

From the time of engagement until marriage, a young lady is 
required to maintain the strictest seclusion. \Vhene\er friends call 
upon her parents she is expected to retire to the inner apartments, 
and in all her actions and words guard her conduct with careful 
solicitude. She must use a close sedan whenever she visits her 
relations, and in her intercourse with her brothers and the domestics 
in the household maintain great reserve. Instead of having any 
opportunity to form those friendships and acquaintances with her own 
sex, which among ourselves become a source of so much pleasure at 
the time, and advantage in after life, the Chinese maiden is confined 
to the circle of her relations and her immediate neighbours. She has 
few of the pleasing remembrances and associations that are usually 
connected with school-day life, nor has she often the ability or 
opportunity to correspond by letter with girls of her own age. 
Seclusion at this time of life, and the custom of crippling the feet, 
combine to confine women in the house almost as much as the 
strictest laws against their appearing abroad; for in girlhood, as 
they know only a few persons, except relatives, and can make very 
few acquaintances after marriage, their circle of friends contracts 
rather than enlarges as life goes on. This privacy impels girls to 
learn as much of the world as they can, and among the rich their 
curiosity is gratified through maid-servants, match-makers, peddlers, 
visitors, and others. Curiosity also stimulates young ladies to learn 
something of the ciiaracter and appearance of their intended 
husbands, but the rules of society are too strict for young persons 
to endeavour to form a personal attachment, though it is not 
[absolutely] impossible for them to have a look at each other if 
they wish. 

As to relations with the betrothed, there are none. The 
two are as utter strangers to each other as any other man 
or woman, if not more so: no courting:: no moonlight 
rambles; no gradually getting better acquainted with each 
other and thereby getting better fitted to live together. It 
is simply a business transaction in almost all cases, the 
active parties, in which are the parents, while the most 
interested parties are simply passive. The children are 
supposed never to meet or speak to each other, and it avouM 
be unpardonably bad taste were the parents representing 
the one side ever to discuss the subject with those of the 
other side. Under these circumstances there are, of course, 



72 THINGS CHINESE. 

no engagement rings, nor for that matter is a wedding ring 
worn by Chinese hidies when married. 

What has been stated above is in I'egard to the 
betrothal of a chief or legitimate wife. With concubines, 
or secondary wives, it is quite different. In their case a go- 
between may be employed or not. In such a betrothal, 
all that generally takes place in Canton is for the woman 
to pour out a cup of tea for her future husband to drink, 
and a parcel of money, wrapped up, of course, in red paper 
and containing two, or three, or ten dollars or so, is placed 
on the tray for her; but in other places there may not be 
as much ceremony about it as that. The bargain money 
may even be paid right into her own hands, but this is only 
the case with very low people, as it is not thought tlie right 
thing for either party to liave direct dealings with one 
anotlier. 

In the Macao district of country the course of procedure 
with regard to concubines is as follows: — a man taking a 
fancy to a domestic slave for her good looks or for her 
capacity for work, approaches her mistress on the subject 
through a ^o-between or a mutual friend, who sees the 
master, if he is a man, or the mistress, if she is a woman 
{for men and women, as a general rule, have no dealings 
together in China). The friend may even commission his 
wife, if she knows the mistress, to transact the business; 
preliminary enquiries iirst being made, the bargain money 
then passes through the hand of the friend to the master 
or mistress. Should the money required be :§ilOO — then 
the bargain money would be |10. This is really a purchase, 
though disguised under the name of baj-gain or earnest 
money. In the Macao district, the tea pouring out takes 
place occasionally, but is not a regular practice. 

Bool' recommctuh'd. — Williams's Mi'ldle Kiuiiddiii, Vol. II., pp. 78."). 
786. Sec Article on Marriage. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY.— mmendorfTs ' xManual of Chinese 
Bibliography ' is a most valuable work of reference with 
regard to European books, essays, and articles on China 



BIRDS' NESr SOUP. 73 

down to the year 1876: it contains 4,639 titles. There is 
also the encyclopsedic work of M. Henri Cordier, "Bibliotheca 
Sinica: Dictionnaire Bibliographique des Ouvrages Relatifs 
i\ I'Empire Chinois,' in two large volumes of 1396 pages; 
it is a perfect storehouse of information on books relating 
to China, and a supplement has either been, or is about to 
be, issued to bring it up to date. As to native works, 
Wylie's 'Notes on Chinese Literature' is invaluable: it 
treats of 1,74-5 Chinese books. For an account of the 
immense compendiums of former works, made by authority of 
•different Emperors, one should refer to ]\rayers's Bibliography 
of the Chinese Imperinl Collection of Literature,' published 
in the 'China Review,' Vol. YL, pp. 223—286. 

BIRDS' ^EST ,S Of 'P.— Birds' nest soup is even more 
of a luxury in China, than turtle soup is in England. An 
old resident in China thus writes of them :— 

' Perhaps the costliest dainty of the Chinese cuisine 
and is as much prized by Chinese gourmands as turtle is 
in England. It is not nasty, but it is. to a European palate, 
■exceedingly insipid: it is a white, soft, slippery substance, 
not unlike a badly made junket, or flummery, and tlie taste 
for it is certainly an acquired one.' 

The nests from which the soup is prepared are not like 
an ordinary nest made up of sticks and twigs, hay and grass, 
but are of a gelatinous substance, secreted by the bird itself 
for the purpose, or, as it has been Avittily put, the bird makes 
them 'all out of its own head.' Darwin puts it in plain 
English : — • The Chinese make soup of dried saliva ' ; in 
scientific language, they are described as being produced 
from the 'inspissated mucus from the salivary glands'; 
these nests are constructed in caves on the sea-shore, the 
swiftlet which makes them being a native of ]\L\laya and 
Ceylon. Gomanti are the largest birds' nest caves in the 
world * * from which there is an out-turn of over 
i^ 15,000 worth yearly.' The nests are gathered at con- 
siderable risk, and the best quality commands a high 
price, ranging from three to thirty dollars a pound, while 



74 THINGS CHINESE. 

the inferior grades are mixed more or less with twigs, &c. 

The Chinese consider it strengthening and stimulating, and 

it forms the first dish at all grand dinners. Here is a receipt 

for preparing Potage cmx Nids cV Hirondelles, translated 

from the Chinese: — • 

' Take clean white birds' nest shreds, or birds' nests, and soak 
thoroughly. Pick out all feathers. Boil in soup or water till tender, 
and of the colour of jadestone. Place pigeons' eggs below, and add 
some ham shreds on tcp. Boil again slowly with little fluid. If 
required sweet, then boil in clear water till tender, add sugar-candy, 
and then eat. This is a most clear and pure article, and thick (or 
oily) substances should not be added. It should be boiled for a long 
time ; for, if not boiled till tender, it will cause diarrhcea." 

BIRTH. — (Customs coxxfxtI':d with.) There are 
quite a number of su|;erstitions connected \a itli the birth 
of children. As an instance of them it may be noted that 
certain coins are worn by Avomen before the event, as they 
are thought to ensure an easy delivery. Midwives are- 
nearly always in attendance; they are utterly ignorant 
women, and sad are the tales that many a foreign doctor 
could tell of the wretched plight Chinese women have been 
reduced to under their unskilful treatment, or ■want of 
treatment. They are engaged a month beforehand except in 
very poor cases. 

Shortly before birth, when the birth-pangs come on. 
the mother-in-law and midwife worship all the household 
gods (all the gods that may be in the house) and the 
ancestral tablets, but there is no going to the Temple or 
Ancestral Hall for the purpose. These acts of worship 
consist in burning incense before the objects of adoration 
and extempore prayer (there being no form of prayer for 
the purpose) for a quick and happy delivery, and for the 
welfare of child and mother; the woman herself does not 
offer any prayer. 

One of our inf«n"niants tells us that, from his experience, 
the new born infant is washed with warm water at once 
(whether this is due to foreign influence or not we cannot 
say), Avhile from other sources w-e learn that such an idea is 
scouted. No daintv little babv garments are ready for the 



BIRTH. 75- 

stranger, worked with the expectant love of the motlier, or 
given by friends in anticipation of the interesting event, 
but ]iis tender little limbs and body are wrapped up in 
swaddling bands which consist of old warm clothes both of 
men and women— a little bundle of old clothes, awkward and 
uno-ainlv for the tinv mite inside them. After this, the new 
born babe may probably not be washed again thoroughly 
(if he has ever yet been subjected to such an operation ) for 
the first month, for fear the child should get cold, he cr 
she niay be wiped over with a cloth ; but after that time the 
luxury of an occasional wash, such as it is, may be indulged^ 
in. A special kind of fine little cake, sweet and delicate in 
taste, is sometimes the only food the little stranger is regaled' 
with for the first few days. For the first month, the mother 
must have ginger and vinegar with everything she takes. 
She eschews lier ordinary food — chicken boiled with ginger 
and vinegar, or (if too poor to afi'ord the fowl, cheap enough 
though it be in China), duck's eggs boiled with the same- 
condiments, and pig's feet boiled with the same articles form 
her diet : and these she eats twice or thrice a day. Such 
a dietary is considered to be tonic, and after the month is 
np, she returns to her ordinary food. 

And now comes a most important event— the shaving 
of the child's head. A lucky day is selected for it. It must 
not be after the thirtieth day, but it may be before or on 
the day itself, i.e., the shaving takes place on the completion 
of the month (the month of course has sometimes 29 days 
and sometimes 30 dnys) if that should prove to be a lucky 
day, if not, an earlier day is selected, never a later one. 
After the shaving is over (on the same day — never before 
the operation), the ancestors first are worshipped and then 
the household gods, thanks being offered to them for the 
addition to the family and prayers for the prolongation of 
the life newly bestowed. The Temple and/or Ancestral Hall 
are often also visited for the same purpose by those who are 
making a great fuss over the event. Offerings are, of course, 
made. The mother-in-law, or some relative, goes to perform 
these religious acts and not the father or mother : it is very 



76 THINGS GlimEHE. 

ravely, if over, that the iiK^tlier goes <)ii tlicse o'.jcasion.s. 
The (;hn(l. h(.)\vevei, dressed in its best is cariiud in the arms. 
Avlien this worship takes place. On the first occasion when 
a child is shaved, which necessary operation from a Chinese 
stand[)oint takes place, as we liave already seen, Avhen 
the baby is either a month or nearly a month old; eggs, dyed 
red, are sent round to relatives, friends and acquaintances. 
The number to be sent is not fixed by custom, nor is it 
necessary f)r any written communication to accompany 
them ; a verbal message that they are from so-and-so is 
:suffi.cient. The recipients are expected to give a j^i'esent to 
the cliild on its being a month old, when a feast is held, to 
which they are invited. These red eggs are sent, in the 
south of China, irrespective of the sex ; whether a distinction 
exists in the north and only a boy is entitled to them, and 
■of the boys of a family, only the first born, w'e are unable to 
say; but ^\\. Giles in his 'Chinese Sketches,' p. 159,' states 
that such is the case amongst the Chinese. The custom 
amongst the Cantonese is as stated above: so that it is 
possible ^Ir. Giles's remarks simply refer to the north, since 
customs differ so widely in China. 

The Chinese have almost as great a love fjr dinners 
as the English, and it is only natural that a feast should 
take place when the child is a month old, called Kijiig fs'o. 
ginger and vinegar. Cards of invitati<)n ai-e issued to this 
Kong chbk, or ginger dinner, to which the guests are both 
friends and relatives. Unless the family is poor, the male 
friends go to a restaurant for their feast: if poor, and there 
are onlv two or three relatives, it may be given in the 
house. The women's repast, on the other hand, is spread 
in the h(juse. 

If, however, there are many friends and relatives, two 
feasts are held: the first is for the relatives and is at the 
house, even if they are males ; the second is for friends, and 
is at a restaurant. In such eases the relatives are invited on 
the day of the shaving even if it takes place before the 
month is up; the invitations are sent out the before day, or 
;to those at a distance, earlier; and the friends also, whether 



BOATS. 77 

invited at the same, or anotlier time, may also be asked 
as well before the month is up. The feast may be held 
at another time than the shaving date either for relatives^ 
or friends, or both, the chief thing seems to be to celebrate 
the event by a feast. Two dislies are on the tables : the 
one containing the pickled ginger which gives the name 
to the entertainment, and the otlier red eggs dyed with 
vin chi, Chinese rouge, or with foreign dye stuffs. The 
invited guests make presents of gold and silver jewellery, 
or articles of clothing, to the infant, accompanied with 
lai-chi (cash or siher folded within red paper), the latter 
is given if nothing else is, more presents, of course, being 
given to a boy than to a girl. 

The swaddling bands being discarded, the little mainkin 
(or the ' little wifie ' to a lesser extent) comes out gorgeous 
in scarlet and red — bright with colours; amulets and charms 
adorn him and safeguard him from e-sil spirits and demons : 
a tiny mirrow flashes, perchance, from the front of his 
forehead to dismay the ugly devils by a sight of their 
hideousuess; a row of gilt deities benignly encircle his brow 
to guard him; silver locks and chains bind him, so that no 
harm may befall him : many and wonderful are the means 
used to protect him by such and other mysteiious and 
occult expedients and devices from all injury, while common- 
sense rules of health and cleanliness are unknoM'n and 
ignored. The tribute paid by childhood, from the very 
moment of birth and onwards to the insanitary conditions- 
that surround it must be enormous, not only in the 
immediate sacrifice of life, but in the way of sowing seeds 
of future disease and weakness. It is wonderful that so- 
many children escape with a fair amount of health to carry 
on the increasing round of human life and toil in this 
populous land of China. 

BOATS. — Leaves floating on the water first suggested' 
the idea uf boats to the Chinese, so some native writers 
inform us: other accounts ascribe their origin to the sight 
of drift wood, or to a natural development from the more 



78 THINGS CHINESE. 

primitive raft. Whether or not fallen leaves — the leaves 
of the f(jrest when autnmn hath blo^^'n — Avere the first hints 
of future possibilities, the boats of China might almost be 
■compared to the leaves of the forest in number, and their 
varieties arc about as great as that of the foliage of China. 
Boats large and small, boats long and short, boats broad 
and narrow, boats for hawkers, boats for fishing, boats for 
pleasure — boats ready for any and everything; boats for 
smuggling, boats for pirates, boats for honest tradesmen, 
boats for lepers, boats for beggars, boats for everyone; 
boats for passage, for ferries, for bridges, for marriages, 
for feastings, for theatres, or rather for theatrical troupes 
and their properties. Is there anything that boats are not 
provided for in China? 

It has been said there are more boats in China than in 
all the rest of the Avorld put together. The extensive sea- 
board, and the innumerable rivers and streams are a 
-suificient reason for this multiplicity of boats. 

If we credit what the natives themselves say, boats 
were first built in the third century before the Christian era. 

One account ascribes the invention to Ho Sin Kwii, a pious 
■woman, who became one of the eight Taonist genii. Her first craft 
was a mere raft, without means of propulsion. But one daV when 
she was washing clothes in the river, she took a hint from a fish that 
was rowing with its fins and steering with its tail, and she then put 
oars and a rudder upon her boat. 

In medioQval times the Chinese not only held their own, 
but took the lead, in adventurous voyages to distant shores 
{See Article on Chinese Abroad), which awaken the surprise 
and admiration of those who have investigated the subject; 
but gradually these voyages have been discontinued; and 
even in modern times, within the memory of the author, 
they have shrunk into short passages between different sea- 
ports on the coast of China and closely adjacent countries. 
The voyages in native craft to the Straits Settlements and 
neighbouring lands and islands being bitt few; while the 
long trips to India, and other distant lands, in the large old 
junks carrying from three to ten and twelve sails (the 
present sea-going junks seldom have more than three or 



BOATS. 79 

four sails) and a crew of 250 or more men, mentioned by 
the medieval travellers, Friar Jbrdanns, Ibn Batuta, and 
Marco Polo, are now entirely a thing- of the past. The old 
must die out before the new, and the modern steamship is 
running, in fact has run, the heavy lumbering junk off many 
of its old established sea-routes; even a commencement has 
been made in inland waters in the same direction, and 
■eventually the picturesque clumsy old craft are bound to 
disappear in the ^vorld's march of progress which even now 
influences distant Cathay. Notwithstanding their uncouth 
shape and clumsy-looking sails, they undoubtedly are 
picturesque objects, and look as if they had been commenced 
in some antediluvian age and never finished off. Their 
bizarre hulls, high sterns further augmented by the ginger- 
bread work, the divergent rake of their masts, their large 
nut-brown matting sails, topped sometimes with a gay red 
pennant, all lend a distinct charm and piquant flavour of 
their own to the jnnk, and make it a su I generis, not to be 
found anywhere else in the -wide world. They offer very 
effective objects for the painter's brush, whether as brown 
sails speckled on the sun-lit sea; or whether the diverse 
style of their build with their queer-shaped hulls are more 
carefully studied; or whether, all tattered and torn, the 
ragged sail f" the weather-beaten craft on its return voyage 
suggests a conflict with stormy winds, while a more forlorn 
Appearance still is apparent when dismantled they are 
undei going repairs, or when heeled over on the sand for 
breaming, jr when cast high and dry on the beach or 
stranded on the rocks with their bare poles of masts, and 
gaping sterns, out of which stick their queer-shaped 
enormous rudders. Still more picturesque is the sight of a 
squadron of w^ar-junks with briglitly painted hulls and 
many-coloured banners, of all shapes and sizes, and stream- 
ing pennants like the old mediaeval galleys of Europe, lying 
ready to sta-t on an expedition to subdue the rebellious 
subjects of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of China. 

A book, nay scores of books, might be written on the 
many-featured sides of life to be found on boats in China: . 



80 THINGS CHINESE. 

their liistory from earliest times to the present; their shapes 
unci sizes and builds and rigs, from the curious Hakka boats, 
with their nine or a dozen sails spread fan-like on an 
improvised frame-work of bamboo poles, doM n to the tiny 
fislier's canoe. 

What interesting chapters could be indited anent 
thousands and millions of human beings, whose Avhole lives 
are spent on the rivers and canals, which flow past, or cut 
through, so many Chinese cities — inhabiting dwellings 
without foundations (and for which the occupants pay no 
ground-rent) as the flowing stream supports them in more 
senses than one ; the strange and varied experiences to be 
found in travelling by boat will still afford material for 
many a volume of novel adventure in the future as they 
have in the past; the origin of some of the boat populations, 
their curious customs, habits and superstitions, these all 
have been but lightly toiiched upon as yet, and present an 
interesting field to be worked by the ethnologist, the com- 
parative mythologist, and the lover of folklore. 

The following extracts from consular reports, by 
Mr. Byron Brennan, are interesting as showing how an 
attempt has been made to copy tlie paddle-wheel in one 
species of boat in Canton, and how steam-launches are 
making their way into use : — 

The evolution of the Chinese passenger boat is proceeding 
cautiously. Twenty years ago sails and sweeps were the powers 
used ; then came stern-wheel boats worked by manpower, these are 
still extensively used. The next stage was a tow boat lashed along- 
side a passenger boat and the next, it may be hoped will be the 
amalgamation of the tug and the tow. 

The stern wheel passenger boats are a striking feature on the 
busy river at Canton. They are long, low, box-looking craft, the 
largest being of about loo tons measurement. The inside of the box 
is divided into compartments into which the passengers lie down or 
squat, for there is not head room. The roof is flat, and on this sit 
a crowed of passengers sheltered from the weather by stiff bamboo 
mats. At the stern is the compartment, where the men work. The 
largest kind of boat has twenty-four men. The machinery on a large 
boat consists of four shafts laid across the boat at a distance of 3 feet 
from each other. At each end of these shafts six men work a sort of 
treadmill ; they hold on to a cross bar above with their hands, while 
their feet work the three wooden pedals which are fixed on three iron 
arms ladiating from the centre ; there is thus an angle of 120 degrees 



BOOKS OX CHINA. 81' 

between two pedals. The pedals along the shafts are so dispersed 
that the six men do not keep step. As No. i puts his foot on one 
pedal, No. 2 is already half way through his step, and so on. These 
series of treadmills are connected with the stern paddle-wheel by 
means of cranks, so that one revolution of the tread-mill makes one 
revolution of the stern wheel. The stern-wheel is 8 feet in diameter 
and has 8 floats, and when the men are working easy it makes 16 to 
18 revolutions a minute, and the speed attained is 3 J miles to 4 miles 
an hour. On a long journey the men rest in turn, three working to 
one resting, and in this way the boat is kept going during the whole 
of the day. 

The number of native owned steam launches running between 
Canton and the numerous towns to the delta is constantly increasing. 
Besides their use by officials, and in the customs, likin, and salt 
preventive services, they are constantly employed to tow passenger 
boats ; but, in this case, only to and from fixed stations. The 
launches engaged in towing are taxed, and ply under severe pains 
and penalties. However, since the opening of the West River in 
1897, steam traffic on the Canton waterways has been placed under 
the control of the Imperial Maritime Customs. 

At Swatow and other places in China, such as between 
Soo Chow, Hang Chow, and Shanghai, steam-launches are- 
plying as passenger boats, and it is hoped that as time goes 
on they will be increased, as notwithstanding the multiplicity 
of boats and the magnificent rivers in many parts, inter- 
communication is slow. 

BOOKS ON CHTNA.— The books written on China are 
numerous and are constantly being added to (See Article on. 
Bibliography). Nearly every one that has taken any interest 
in the country or people has written about one or both. 
Missionaries, merchants, military and naval men, scholars, 
professors, teachers, interpreters, consuls and vice-consuls, 
ambassadors and diplomats, statesmen, travellers and globe- 
trotters, the literary man, reviewers, novelists and poets, as 
well as the Chinese themselves, have all contributed their 
quota to instruct Europe and America as to things Chinese; 
and the views presented from such varied standpoints are 
naturally diverse. The books produced range through all 
branches of the subject: the languages and peoples, the 
history, geography, natural history, government, customs,. 

F 



82 THINGS CHINESE. 

and manners, books, arts and industries, religions, politics 
and commerce— all come in for their full share of attention. 

We do not propose to give a complete list of the 
best books on China^ but the perusal or study of the 
following ten will give a very good idea of this interesting 
people : — 

(1.) Williams's 'Middle Kingdom,' — To those who wish 
to get a general idea of the Empire, and all that concerns it 
and its people, there is not a better book. It is a perfect 
repository of information for the general reader, and the last 
edition, which has been brought up to date will doubtless 
maintain its position as a text book on the subject for many 
years to come. 

(2.) Archdeacon Gray's 'China.' — A book in two 
volumes, profusely illustrated by Chinese dra^dngs, and 
giving much information, not in the style of a text-book, 
but in the form of a personal narrative of what the author 
liimself saw during his long residence in China. 

(3.) 'Historic China and other Sketches,' by H. A. Giles, 
late H.B.M's. Consular Service. — An octavo volume of 400 
pages, containing short sketches of the different historical 
periods, and essays, all written in a light and pleasant style, 
and containing much information. 

( k) Doolittle's ' Social Life of the Chinese.' — A book 
full of all the curious superstitions, strange ceremonies, and 
customs of the Chinese, more particularly those pertaining 
to Foochow. 

(5.) 'Ling-nara,' by Rev. B. C. Henry, M.A., d.d. — A 
pleasant, brightly-written book of travels in the Canton 
Province, Avith descriptions of its beautiful scenery, fine 
rivers, and thickly populated districts. 

(6.) Miss Gordon Cumming's 'Wanderings in China,' is 
light, pleasant reading, and gives the general reader a good 
idea of the coast ports. 



BOOKS ON CHINA. 83 

(7.) 'Journeys in North China,' by the late Dr. Williamson, 
■ contains an immense amount of reliable information, prin- 
cipally about that portion of China. 

(8.) Professor Douglas's ' Society in China ' is even 
better than his former work ' China,' Avhich we recommended 
in a former edition as being well fitted to give a good general 
idea of China and its people within compact limits. 

(9.) Journals of tlie North China Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society', [See Article on Asiatic Society.) 

(10.) Professor Legge's 'Chinese Classics' contain the 
Bible of the Chinese nation, which every school-boy is taught 
to learn by heart, and on Avhich the government of the whole 
empire and the fabric of Chinese society is based. 

The above books might be increased to ten times ten 
■easily enough; nor, by placing these first, do we intend to 
imply that many of the others Avould not equally claim to be 
mentioned with them. With such an enibarras de. riehesses 
it is difficult to know where to begin. Of books of travel, we 
may instance • Old Highways in China.' by Mrs. Williamson, 
as a light and readable book, containing a good deal about 
the women and children. 'J_jife among the Mongols' is a 
true picture of thece nomads. Quite a literature is springing 
■up on Western China; Mrs. Bryson's 'Child Life in China' 
treats of Hankow and tlie neiohbourhord of the Yano;-tsz; 
so does Rev. W. A. Cornaby's 'A String of Chinese Peach 
Stones,' in the way of tales and folk-lore, finally ending in a 
story of the Rebellion of Rebellions in modern times in 
China, the great T'ai P'ing Rebellion; E. Colborne Baber's 
* Travels and Researches in Western China,' published as a 
supplemental paper of the Royal Geographical Society, 
Vol. 1, pt. I, 1882; Hosie's 'Travels in Western China,' and 
Rev. V. Hart's 'Western China' are all most interesting 
books and well worthy of perusal. In this connection there 
is also Mr. Little's 'Yang-tsz Gorges.' 

Still treating of particular parts of China is Baron 
■Richthofen's splendid work, which deals with the northern 
part of the empire, and contains much valuable information 

f2 



84 THINGS CHINESE. 

by a traveller ' of great scientific ability,' whose explorations 
have been described as ' at once the most extensive and the 
most scientific of our age.' It is written in German. 

Concerning Canton, one may read Archdeacon Gray's 
' Walks in the City of Canton,' Avhich, besides giving much 
information, is also useful as a guide book. Mention should 
also be made of the Rev. Hilderic Friend's ' Willow Pattern,' 
written by one who lived amongst the people, and took the 
greatest interest in all their habits and customs ; it is 
consequently a very truthful picture of Chinese life, told in 
the guise of a tale. 

Macao has been treated of in a book, now rare and out 
of print, viz. : — Sir Andrew Lungstedt's 'Macao and China,*^ 
over the production of which the author spent much labour 
and research. 

Swatow customs, people and folk-lore are treated of in 
a trio of books by Miss Fielde, entitled ' Pagoda Shadows,' 
'A Corner of Cathay,' and *' Chinese Nights' Entertainment.' 

Archdeacon Moule's ' New China and Old,' has some- 
thing to say of Ningpo, Hangchow, and Shanghai ; besides 
treating of Chine.se subjects in general. 

The transition from these to a lighter class of reminis- 
cences of olden days, may be made by the reading of an 
"old resident's" recollections of earlier days, under the names 
of ' Bits of Old China,' and ' The Fan-kwai in Canton.' 

A vast amount of learning, erudition, and research are 
shown in many of tlie books published on China, especially in 
the China RevieAv,' 'Transactions of the N. C. Br. of the 
E. A. S.,' already mentioned, and in the twenty volumes of the 
'Chinese Repository.' Any one who will take the trouble xo 
make himself acquainted with most of the Articles and Notes 
contained in these three periodicals, to say nothing of 'Notes 
and Queries on China and Japan,' and 'The Chinese Journal 
and Missionary Recorder,' and 'Journal of the Peking 
Oriental Society,' will find that there is scarcely a subject 



BOOKS ON CHINA. 85 

-connected with China that has not been most learnedly 
•discussed in tliese pages. 

To those who are fond of the marvellous, treated in a 
sober manner, let us recommend Olythical ]\Ionsters,' by 
•Charles Gould, son of the gifted and renowned ornithologist. 

From myths to Avorship is an easy transition, and here 
we have a whole host of books, especially if under this 
category we include books dealing with the philosophical 
systems. • The Dragon, Image, and Demon, or the Three 
Religions, will give an idea of the multiplicity of objects of 
worship : it deals primarily Avith the neighbourhood of 
Soochow, though much is applicable to all parts of China. 
Edkin's 'Religion in China,' and his "'Chinese Buddhism,' 
]jegge's "The Religions of China,' and Real's 'Buddhistic 
Literature in China,' treat full}' of these subjects. To those 
wlio are content with comparatively short essays, there is 
Douglas's ' Confucianism and Taouism,' containing two 
admirable monographs on these two religions, or philosopliies. 
Then there are the works of Dr. Faber, noted for sound 
scholarship: 'The .Mind of JMencius, or Pi^litical Economy, 
founded upon Moral Philosophy,' and • A Systematic Digest 
of the Doctrines of Confucius,' besides his other works 
in both German and English. The Bible of the Taouists, 
'The Tao Teh King,' is translated by the learned sinologue, 
\)x. Chalmers ; there are besides two translations of the 
Taouist philosopher by Balfour and Giles respectively, and 
.latest of all Professor Legge's translation in the •' Sacred 
Books of the East ' series. 

There are numbers of volumes containing short papers 
or essays, amongst which we may mention the admirable 
' Hanlin Papers, or Essays on the Intellectual Life of the 
•Chinese,' 2nd series, by Dr. Martin; 'Balfour's Leaves from my 
Chinese Scrapbook'; and Sir Walter ^Medhurst's 'The Foreigner 
in Far Cathay'; amongst these also might be classed the 
interesting work ' Chinese Characteristics,' by A. H. Smith, 
now in a second edition. A second edition of Walter's 
'Essays on Chinese Literature' has just been published. 



86 THINGS CHINESE. 

The gift to see ourselves as others see us will be granted by 
a perusal of 'Those Foreign Devils': a Celestial on England 
and Englishmen, translated by W. H. Wilkinson of H.M's.- 
Consular Service. 

For the Historical student there are Boulger's ' History 
of China, ' in three large volumes ; Ross's History of the 
Manchus/ and the same author's ' Corea, ' which necessarily 
deal largely with China. Tiiere is also Dr. Hirth's learned 
brochure 'China and the Roman Orient: Researches into 
their Ancient and Mediaeval Relations as represented in old 
Chinese Records.' Parker's 'A Thousand Years of the Tartars/ 
Rev. J. Macgowan's 'History of China,' and his 'Pictures of 
Southern China' ; Mrs. Bishop's 'Korea and Her Neighbours' ; 
Mr. J. J. M. de Groot's 'Religious Systems of China'; 
and Dr. H. A. Giles' ' Biographical Dictionary ' are amongst 
the latest works published on China. 

Those who are interested in the part that different 
European nations have played in the Far East, and in the 
political out-look in that part of the world will doubtless 
find the following books to their taste, viz.: — 

'Problems of the Far East,' by the Rt. Hon. G. N. 
Curzon; and 'The Peoples and Politics of the Far East,' by 
Mr. H. Norman. 

A pleasant taste of Chinese literature may be obtained 
from Mr. Giles's ' Gems of Chinese Literature,' being gleanings 
from all times and periods. 

Those fond of poetry will find it treated of in Sir John 
Davis's monograph on the 'Poetry of the Chinese' ; and those 
delighting in rhymes, will find Stent's 'Entombed Alive, 
and other Songs and Ballads from the Chinese,' a lively book 
to beguile a pleasant half-hour; 'Pidgin-English Sing-song/ 
by Chas. G. Leland, is amusing. Freemasons and those 
interested in Secret Societies will find Schlegel's ' Thian Thi 
Hwui,' of great interest. 'A Collection of Chinese Proverbs/ 
by W. Scarborough, will suit another class of readers. The 
translation of the Ch'cug Yii K'ao, ' A Manual of Chinese 
Quotations, ' by the Hon. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, c.M.G., is 
another work of value. 



BOOKS ON CHINA. 87 

Philologists have their tastes provided for in Edkins's 
' China's Place in Philology,' and ' The Languages of China 
before the Chinese/ by Professor Terrien de Lacouperie. 

The Collector of China has had some aids provided in 
Dr. Birth's ' 'Ancient Porcelain: A Study in Chinese Mediaeval 
Industry and Trade/ and Dr. Bushell's ' Chinese Porcelain 
before the Present Dynasty.' It is a pity that the illustrations 
of this last work could not have been reproduced. Numis- 
matists will find their tastes catered for in the Hon. Stewart 
Lockhart's 'The Currency of the Farther East from the Earliest 
Times up to the Present Day.' 

Not a few books in French have been issued from the 
press dealing with China, and ranging from the learned works 
of Julien to the recent light literature by Tcheng Ki Tong. 
The other principal languages of Europe have all been 
requisitioned to describe this people and their country, such 
as German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and even 
Latin. 

But we have already occupied more than enough space 

in this rapid survey of books treating of China and the 

Chinese, and ha\e necessarily left many works unnoticed. 

We cannot, however, close without a passing reference to 

Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetain traveller of the middle 

ages, the pioneer of the army, which, with ever increasing 

numbers, has visited the ere-while Kingdom of the 'Grand 

Khan,' Kubhii Khan; but the present itinerants, unlike their 

great predecessor, who resided for years in the country, are 

content to 'do' China in a few days or mouths, and then 

hasten to instruct the ignorant world in bo<jks and pamphlets, 

which, often amidst interesting and sprightly narratives of 

stirring events, contain a mass of crude and undigested 

second-hand information of the people they scarcely kno'v, 

and of the country they have skimmed through, 'or rather 

passed by,' so rapidly. 

Books n'roniDicndcil. — ' Bibliotheca Sinica : Dictionnaire BihliogTa- 
phique des Oiivrageii Kelatifs k TEinpire Chiuols, ' par Henri Cordier. 
' Manual of Chinese Bibliography,' being a list of works and essays relating 
to China, by P. G. & 0. F. vou Molleiidorff. ' Collectanea Bibliographica,' 
appearing of late years in the ' China Fieview." 



88 THINGS CHINESE. 

BOOKS FOR LEARNING CHINESE.— Begixmers 
-are often at a loss to know what bo(jks to get to learn the 
different so-called dialects, or rather spoken languages of 
"China; and we often have enquiries made on this subject. 
We therefore give some directions as to tlie books to get : — 

Amoy. — For a phrase-book, get Macgowan's '^Manual 
of the Amoy Dialect,' and for Dictionaries, English-Amoy: 
the same author's 'English-Chinese Dictionary in the Amoy 
Dialect,' price ^10. For Amoy-English Dictionary, 'Chinese- 
English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language 
of Amoy, with the principal variations of the Chang Chew and 
'Chin Chew Dialects,' by Rev. Carstairs Douglas, M.A., L.L.D. 
Besides these books, there is a large assortment — the largest 
in the country — of Romanized Colloquial books prepared by 
"the missionaries. 

CaxtONESE. — For learning the language properly, 
■get 'Cantonese Made Easy,' 2nd edition, price ^3. 'The 
Caiitonese 3[ade Easy Vocabulary,' 2nd edition, price ^1. 
■'How to Speak Cantonese,' price ^3; and 'Readings in 
•Cantonese Colloquial,' price ^3 ; all by the present author. 
The two varieties of Dictionaries required, are EiteFs 
Cantonese-English Dictionary, price $10; and Chalmers's 
'English-Cantonese Dictionary,' price ;|3. For a mere 
smattering — for the acquisition of a few phrases — there is a 
small book specially prepared, freed as much as possible 
from all difficulties; it is 'An English and Cantonese Pocket 
Vocabulary,' also by the present author, price 75 cents. 

FOOCIIOW. — Maclay's ' Manual of tlie Foochow Dialect.' 
and Maclay and Baldwin's ' Chinese-English Dictionary.' 

//.iZ.v,l.Y. — The Gospels in Romanized Colloquial. 

Hakka. — The present author's 'Easy Sentences in 
the Hakka Dialect with a Vocabulary,' price $1 ; this is 
prepared simply for those who wish to acquire a mere 
smattering of Hakka; for others there has just been prepared 
by the same author, 'Hakka Made Easy,' Pt. I, There are 



BOOKS FOR LEARNING CHINESE. 89 

/also the R(jnianized Colloquial books prepared by the German 
Missionaries, as well as tlie New Testament in Character 
Colloquial. 

MAyjJAlUX [Pekixgese). — Sir Thomas Wade'fs 'Tzu- 
Erh-Chi — Colloquial Series,' price $\o. Giles's ' Chinese with- 
out a Teacher/ price ^1. Edkins's 'Mandarin Grammar/ 
price $3. A new book, highly recommended, is Dr. Mateer's 
' Mandarin Lessons ' ; price, in one vol., $8. There is also 
one by a Japanese, Goh— called the 'Kuan Hua Cliih Nan/ 
jprice $\ ; and a translation by L. C. Hopkins, called 'The Guide 
to Kuan Hua,' price $2. This book has been lately translated 
into Cantonese by the Hon. F. H. May. Dictionaries. — Stent's 
"A Chinese and English Vocabulary in the Pekingese Dialect/ 
price ;$6 ; and William's •'Syllabic Dictionary of the Cliinese 
Language,' price $15. There is also the new Dictionary by 
Dr. H. A. Giles, costing ^\lb, and containing, as well as the 
-Mandarin pronunciation, that of a number of the so-called 
Dialects. 

A'/.v^'/v?.— Morrison's "Anglo-Chinese V(jcabulavy of 
the Ninpgo Dialect*: and many Romanized books. 

SUAXaHAI. — Dr. Edkins's 'Grammar of the Shanghai 
Dialect,' price %2; and alsohis Vocabulary in English-Chinese,' 
price %2. 

S C//0 ]]'.— -Ijyon' s 'Introductory Lessons in the Soo- 
chow Dialect,' price 50 cents. 

SU'A TOW. —The simplest is Giles's 'Hand-book of the 
Swatow Vernacular Dialect, with a Vocabulary,' price ^L 
Avery good phrase-book is Lim's ' Hand-book of the Swatow.' 
For an English-Chinese Vocabulary get 'English-Chinese 
Vocabulary of the Vernacular or spoken Language of 
Swatow,' by Rev. W. DufFus, price ^.5. The only Chinese- 
English Dictionary is Miss Fielde's, but unfortunately the 
English spelling of the Chinese words is not the same as in 
the other books, price ^8, unbound. For a combination 



90 THINGS CHINESE. 

of phrase book and grammar, there is ' Primary Lessons in: 
Swatow Grammar, (^Colloquial),' by Rev, W. Ashmore, d.d.,. 
price ^1, unbound. 

TaI-CHOW. — Book of Psalms. 

To read Chinese. — A good knowledge of the Colloquial 
should precede all attempts to learn the Book Language, 
except for scholars in America or Europe, who simply learn 
Chinese as they would Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Sanscrit, or 
any other language for which they have no colloquial need. 

The present author's 'Readings in Cantonese Colloquial.' 
leads from pure and simple colloquial by easy stages to a 
semi-mixed style of colloquial and book language. 

A very good book is William's 'Lasy Lessons in Chinese.' 
Another aid to beginners will be found in the ' Chinese 
Chrestomathy,' an old book, which, with all its faults, is an 
excellent one in many respects. Both these books are out 
of print. 

An admirable Avay ro learn the Book Language is to 
follow the plan of Chinese school-boys by going through the 
school-books, commencing with such as the Third, Pourth.^ 
and Fifth Character Classics, reading aloud after the teacher 
so often that whole pages of the books can be repeated off 
by heart. A translation of the two first-named by Mr. Giles 
is to be had : and Dr. Eitel has also more lately published 
translations of them. Some knowledge might be acquired 
of the 'Four Books' and 'Five Classics,' — the 'Four Books,' 
at all events; if there is time for it. learned in the same 
manner as the simple school-books, mentioned above. 
Legge's • Chinese Classics ' should be used here. Those 
published with Chinese text, English translation, and notes,, 
&c., are five volumes in number. The *Li-Ki,' without the 
Chinese text, is published in the same series in 2 volumes. 
For those who are to be connected with the Consular 
Service, nothing can be better than a thorough mastery of 
Wade's 'Tzfi Erh Chi,' Documentary Series, price ^i. For 



BOTANY. 91 

those in the Imperial Maritime Service, there is, further, the 
admirable series of papers and documents collected by 
Dr. Hirth, entitled •' Text Book of Documentary Chinese,' 
price $4. Besides these two compendiums there is the more 
recent 'Text Book of Documentary Chinese,' by G. T. Hare ; 
which contains many Chinese documents, such as petitions,. 
bills, agreements, memorials, letters, &c., &c., with English 
tables of contents. Hirth's 'Notes on Documentary Style' 
is also a very useful book. After going through the whole, 
or a portion, of the books mentioned above, the learner Avill 
know pretty well Avhat is best adapted for his requirements 
should he intend to proceed further. 

Writixg. — To learn liow to form the Character in the 
correct Avay, there is the present author's 'How to Write 
Chinese,' — Part I., price $;2. 

BOTANY. — There is still a great deal for Botanists to 
do in China^ in the way of collecting, examining, and making 
known to the world the result of their labours, for there are 
yet vast regions unexplored. 

' The Chinese flora is extremely rich. Forests, in the European 
sense, are rare ; but evergreens, flowering shrubs, and especially 
resinous plants, are found in great variety. Proceeding southwards, 
the transition is very gradual from the Manchurian to the tropical 
flora of Indo-China. Hence in some of the central districts there is a 
remarkable intermingling of species belonging to different zones, the 
bamboo flourishing by the side of the oak, while wheat and maize- 
crops are interspersed with paddy-fields, sugar, and cotton plantations. 
In general, the cultivated species are everywhere encroaching on the 
wild flora.' 

We quote the above from A. H. Keane's 'Asia," edited, 
by Sir Richard Temple. 

Owing to the monsoons, there is 'a more regular 
distribution of the rainfall,' and a rainy season in spring ; the 
result is an 'extremely regular succession of seasons, which 
* * * is favourable to a careful garden-like agriculture.' 
In the North, wheat and millet are cultivated, while in the 
South, rice, sugar-cane, mulberries, the tea-plant, and oranges 
are grown. Cotton and indigo are also produced in China. 



-92 THI^GS CHTNESE. 

One of the most mavkecl differences, noticeable to the 
new arrival in China, cspocially in the Sonth, is the absence 
of meadows and pasture lands. ' Hongkong, in its more 
sheltered valleys and ravines, presents an extraordinary 
varied flora,' closely connected with that of Sikkim, Assam, 
Khasia, and North-East India, "and will probably hereafter 
prove to be connected witli it by a gradual transition across 
South China.' Many other species are more tropical, like 
those of the Indian Archipelago, Atalayan Peninsula, and 
•even Ceylon and Africa. 'Northwards of Hongkong the 
Tegetatiou appears to change much more rapidly. Very few 
of the species known to range across from the Himalaya to 
Japan are believed to come much further south than iVmoy, 
where, with a difference of latitude of only two degrees, the 
tropical features of the Hongkong flora have (as far as we 
know) almost entirely disappeared.' It is quite wonderful 
what a "very large total amount of species are crowded upon 
so small an island' as tliis little colony of Hongkoiig. There 
are over 1,000 species, and 550 genera of phanerogamic plants 
■described in Bentliam's 'Flora Hongkongensis.' Since this 
was published, about 210 additional species have been dis- 
covered in Hongkong, bringing the total number of indigenous 
plants in this island up to about the same number as is 
known in the whole of the British Islands. 

In a new work (now being published in separate parts as 
the papers appear in the Linnean Society's Journal) entitled 
'Index Florae Sinensis,' consisting of an enumeration of 
all the plants known from China proper, Formosa, Hainan, 
■the Corea, the Luchu Archipelago, and the Island of 
Hongkong, by F. B. Forbes, P.J...S., and W. B. Hemsley, F.R.S., 
.F.L.s. There are over 120 orders, more than 1,000 genera. 
and about 5,000 species. The book when completed will 
probably contain some 7,000 or more species, representing 
■the whole number of plants at present known to exist in 
•China. The number is being constantly added to by zealous 
botanists in different parts of the country, as many as a 
^thousand, or even more, having been discovered in six years. 



BO TAX Y. 



93^ 



We give a list of some 
in species : — 

Clematis. 31. 
Anemone, 16. 
Ranunculus, 15. 
Nasturtium, 9. 
S tell aria, 16 
Camellia, 14 or more. 
Ilex, 20. 
Euonymus, 19. 
Vitis, 24. - 
Acer, 15. 
Crotalaria, 14. 
Indigofera, 14. 
Astragalus, 21. 
Desmodium. 25. 
Prunus, 21. 
Spiraea, 19. 
Rubus, 41. 
Potentilla, 26. 
Rosa, 17. 
Pyrus, 14. 
Saxifraga, 20. 
Sedum, 28. 
Eugenia, 14. 
Viburnum, 27. 
Lonicera, 34. 
Hedyotis, 21. 
Vernonia, 12. 
Aster, 31. 
Artemisia, 22. 
Senecio, 35. 
Saussurea, 28. 
Lactuca, 21. 



of the genera most numerous- 
Rhododendron, Q)0. 
Primula, 43. 
Lysimachia, 35. 
Ardisia, 18. 
Symplocos. 18. 
Jasminum, 15. 
Ligustrum, 14. 
Cynanchum, 24. 
Gentiana, 57. 
Ipomoca, 26. 
Solanum, 13. 
Veronica, 14. 
Pedicularis, 94. 
Plectranthus, 18. 
Scutellaria, 17. 
Amarantus, 9. 
Chenopodium, 9. 
Polygonum, 63. 
Rumex, 1 1 . 
Aristolochia, 10. 
Piper, 9. 
Chloranthus, 1 1 . 
Machilus, 16. 
Litsea, 23. 
Lindera, 20. 
Wikstrcemia, 13.. 
Elceagnus, 12. 
Loranthus, 14. 
Euphorbia, 23. 
Phyllanthus, 11. 
Glochidion, 10. 
Mallotus, 1 3. 



94 THINGS CHINESE. 

Some of the orders numerous in species are : — 

Ranunculacea), 107. Asclepiacleae, 59. 

Leguminosee, 301. Gentianacee, 81. 

Saxifragacoa), 70. Convolvuiaccre, 49. 

Umbelliferee, 56. Scrophularinea;, 200. 

Caprifoliacese, 78. AcanthaceEe, 5 1 . 

Rubiacece, 106. Verbenacese, oQ. 

Compositas, 325. Labiatre, 136. 

Ericaceae, 79. Polygonacece, 30 

Primulaceae, 97. Laurinete, 73. 

Oleacefe, 52. Euphorbiacene, 131 

Besides these, there are many species of Solanaceae 
Amaryllidete, Liliaceae, Aroideee, Orchidese, Labiatiie and 
Coiiiferse. Many gramineous and alliaceous plants, are 
cultivated for food, but Ave must stop, for if we once 
enter on the food products of China, volumes might be 
written on its extensive economic botany. We cannot 
pass from Chinese plants without a notice of the bamboo in 
its many varieties, useful for food, for dress, for furniture, 
for boat and ship-building, for the erection of houses, and 
for almost everything, that man needs or human ingenuity 
can apply it to. {See Article on Bamboo.) Worthy also of 
mention are the fan palms of the South of China from which 
so many of these articles of necessity in a warm climate are 
manufactured, not only for home consumption but for 
extensive exportation to America and other countries. The 
pea-nut and the plant from which the cool grass-cloth is 
manufactured are largely cultivated. 

Chinese botany, if the thing is worthy of such a scientific 
name, is quite unscientific in its methods. Some of the 
illustrations in botanical works are so truthful that, if the 
genera are known, they afford a moans of ready identification; 
but no pains are taken to specially represent the seed-vessels 
and flowers, so that it is well nigh impossible to tell what 
species a plant so depicted belongs to, unless it is already 
known. The plants are not divided according to their o-rders, 
genera, or species, but the classification is more of this style : — 



BRONZE. 95 

Five Divisions of the Vegetable Kingdom, viz. — Herbs, 
Orains, Vegetables, Pruits and Trees. These are again 
sub-divided into families, though the plants grouped under a 
family are very dissimilar. The same word is used for the 
lowest division, and at times might signify a genus, a species, 
or even a variety. Herbs are divided into nine families; 
'Hill-plants, odoriferous, noxious, scandent or climbing, 
aquatic, stony and mossy plants, and plants not used in 
medicine.' This will give some idea of the mode of classifi- 
cation, for Ave cannot follow them through the other four 
grand divisions. 

BRONZE. —The Chinese appear to have possessed the 
art of both making and ornamenting bronze-work from a 
high antiquity; for even at the time of the Shang dynast)-, 
(B.C. 1783 — 1134) the work bore evidence of having arrived 
at an advanced stage. It was intimately connected Avith 
their ancient beliefs, for bronzs vases and other vessels 
were in use in those most primitive of cults, which have 
still full sway over the Chinese mind: the worship of 
Nature in its visible manifestations of heaven and earth, the 
stars, winds, streams, and mountains, formed the official 
religion of the Chinese, and was confined to the governing 
classes; it was supplemented in the case of individuals and 
families by the worship of ancestors. Unfortunately the 
rigid cast of the Chinese worship of antiquity and of set 
forms, has so bound them down to a faithful copy of all that 
Jias been done by their predecessors, that these bronze 
vessels are copied to the most minute particular at the 
present day. and have been for a score or more centuries. 
The artistic mind was thus hampered and confined to a 
reproduction of wiiat have been considered the masterpieces 
of antiquity; play of individual taste and fancy has been 
restricted and shut up within its own country, with but little, 
if any, inspiration from external sources ; Chinese art thus 
remained till the first century, when a new influence exerted 
a beneficial effect: on it. 



96 THINGS CHINESE. 

But before passing on to a consideration of the influence 
of Buddhism, it is interesting to notice the presence of a 
decorative design, which in the West has been styled 'the 
Greek,' on account of its being found in Greek and Etruscan 
art. The questions naturally present themselves as to 
whether: (1st.) This design has been copied by the Chinese 
from the Greeks; and the answer is that this seems 
improbable. (2nd,) Whether the design has been arrived at 
independently by both nations; and the answer is that this is 
not improbable, for the design of the Chinese seems slightly 
different from that of the Greeks, and it has been suggested 
that it has arisen from the representation of the two 
pervading principles of nature, the Yin and the Yang. (3rd.> 
Whether the design is of such remote antiquity that it may 
have been carried from some cradle of the human race, and 
thus been common originally to both; it would appear in 
our present state of knowledge, that this question must be 
left unanswered. 

At first, animal forms were the original models for the 
Chinese in their sacrificial vessels, but they were not confined, 
to the representation of animals, for vases of curious and 
antique forms are found, and libation vessels like a reversed 
casque mounted on three feet. Ancient bronze work was 
made for other purposes besides the two already named, 
being used by the Emperor for bestowal as presents. 

Buddhism, which we have already referred to, introduced 
in its train objects of virtu and art for the native Chinese to 
copy; and it served as an incentive in presenting a broader 
field for the Chinese art-worker to roam over, less fettered 
than the narrow limits confined him to. Many of the 
treasures of art, which owe their origin to its inspiration, 
have doubtless perished in the iconoclastic persecutions- 
which this religion has met more than once since its 
establishment in China; for the human figure now formed 
a subject for the Chinese artist, and gods and goddesses 
innumerable were depicted, and it is here that the best 
samples of Chinese art are to be found, the finest specimens 



BUDDHISM. 97 

being pvoduced about A.D. 1426, and from A.D. 1621 to 
1643, reaching their highest excellence under the reign of 
K-ang Hi, A.d! 1662. 

Taouist idols and symbols have had their share in 
providing objects of art to the Chinese bronze-worker. 
Arabian, or Persian art, has also, in the time of the Mongol 
rulers of China, exerted some influence on Chinese bronze 
art, by giving it certain beauties of form which it had not 
previously possessed, as well as new decorative and ornamental 
designs; and in this connection one must mention the bronze 
astronomical instruments in Peking, made for the Observatory- 
there, during the time of Kublai Khan. We can only refer 
en passant to the incrustations of gold, or the beautiful 
ornamentation Avith delicate scrolls and flowers in niello 
Avork of silver or gold wire, inserted into grooves cut in the 
metal on bronze work, Avhich greatly enhances its beauty ; 
nor can we do more than call attention to the damaskeen 
work, probably introduced from India, as well as the gilded 
bronze, due to Buddhist influence on Chinese a]'t. 

Biiolt rcro mm ended. — 'I/Art C'hinois.' by M. raleologiie. 

BUDDHISM. — Cirina presents the unique spectacle of 
three powerful so-called religions, holding sway concurrently 
over the teeming millions of its inhabitants ; and though 
strong opposition has been shown to the younger members- 
of this trinity of religions by the older one — Confucianism 
— yet there is now an outward pax. Each of them is a 
complement of the other, and attempts to meet a diiferent 
want in human nature; Confucianism appeals to morality 
and conduct; Taouism is materialistic; and Buddhism, 
metaphysical. Two only are indigenous : Buddhism is foreign, 
introduced in A.D. 61, for the Emperor dreamt of a gigantic 
image of gold, and sent to India in search of the new 
religion : but some believe it Avas known in China before 
that. The first centuries of its arrival were marked by the 
translation into Chinese of numerous Buddhistic works; and 
there was considerable progress in making proselytes, for 



98 THINGS CHINESE. 

in the fourth century nine-tenths of the inhabitants of China 
were Buddhists. It is impossible* to give an estimate of 
the number at the present day, as every Chinaman, who is 
not a Mohammedan or Christian, is a Buddhist, as well as a 
Toauist and a Confucianist, often at one and the same time. 
The eclectic nature of the Chinese, and the mutual adaptation 
of the systems — a give and take — to one another, in the 
course of centuries of combined occupation of the Chinese 
religious mind, have rendered the outcome more of an- 
amalgamation, or rather a mechanical combination of the 
three ; for their partnership is not of that intimate character 
that it can be compared to a chemical union, where the 
different elements combine to produce a new substance. All 
three are likeAvise established faiths in China: their sages 
and divinities are admitted into the state pantheon and 
honoured by state patronage. One is tempted to illustrate 
this combination of the three, so intimately are they some- 
times blended together, as a tripartite union of body, soul, 
and spirit : Confucianism with its ever present essence, 
permeating the whole body politic, and social system, 
forming the soul; but here the comparison must stop for it 
cannot, Avith any approach to truth, be carried further except 
to say that there are two other members of this partnership. 

Buddhism is divided into two great branches, tlie 
Northern and Southern. The Buddhism of China, Nepaul, 
Tibet, Mongolia, Corea, Japan, and Cochin China belong to 
the Northern ; that of Ceylon, Bui'mah, and Siam to the 
Southern. There are several points of diff"erence between 
them: the sacred books amongst the Northern Buddhists are 
either in Sanscrit, or translated from it; while amongst the 
Southern, Pali is the sacred language. The Northern 
Buddhists have the story of the Western Paradise, perhaps 
evolved from the human mind as the result of longings for 
some tangible residence of future bliss, which the doctrine 
of Nirvana does not satisfy with its absorption into a 
passionless state. In this pure land of the West, the saints 
are exempt from suffering, death, and sexual distinction. 



BUDDHISM. 99 

surronnded by the most beautiful scenery, and 'live for 
seons in a state of absolute bliss. The Goddess of Mercy, 
who takes very much the same place as the Virgin Mary 
amongst Roman Catholics, belongs to this division of 
Buddhism. In the Southern branch the Hindoo traditions 
in respect to cosmogony and mythology are adhered to more 
rigidly ; while in the Northern branch a completely new and 
far more extensive universe, with divinities to correspond, 
is believed in. 

Thougli these three, especially Taouism and Buddhism, 
are so blended and mixed together, the latter obtrudes itself 
more on the view than the other two. Its temples, as well 
as its priests, are more numerous. It is very interesting to 
notice the various phases which this wide-spread form of 
religion has developed in different lands. In China, it is 
polytheistic, and has borrowed and adopted deities from 
Taouism. In fact. Buddhism has adapted itself to circum- 
stances, and finding certain beliefs prevalent amongst the 
■Chinese, instead of combating them, has taken them under 
its wing, and thus gained by accretion, not only beliefs, but 
numbers. 

Nor does Buddhism seem only to have borrowed from 
Taouism, and in this connection the following extract from 
a paper by Professor Max Miiller in the Fortnightly Review 
for July, 189G, may be interesting : — 

Hui and Gabet, Avhile travelling in Tibet felt startled 
at the coincidences between tlieir own ecclesiastical ritual 
and that of the Buddhist priesthood in Tibet. They pointed 
out, among other things, the crosier, the mitre, the dalmatic, 
the cope, the service with two choirs, the psalmody, 
exorcism, the use of censers held by five chains which shut 
and open by themselves, blessings given by the Lamas in 
extending their right hand over the heads of the faithful, 
the use of. beads for saying prayers, the celibacy of the 
priesthood, spiritual retreats, worship of saints, fastings, 
processions, litanies, holy water — enough it would seem to 
-startle Roman Catholic missionaries. They ascribed them 

g2 



100 THINGS CHINESE. 

to the devil who wished to scandalise pious Roman 
Catholics who might visit Tibet. **«-*;= We cannot 
escape from the conclusion that this large number of 
coincidences proves an actual historical communication 
between Roman Catholic and Buddhist priests. And such a 
channel through which these old Roman Catholic customs 
could have reached Tibet can be shown to have existed. It 
is an historical fact that Christian missionaries, chiefly 
Nestorians, were very active in China from the middle of the 
seventh to the end of tlie eighth century. Their presence 
and activity in China during these centuries are attested 
not only by the famous monument of Hsian-fu, but likewise 
by variovis Chinese historians, and we have no reason 
to doubt their testimony. The Nestorian Christians had 
monasteries and schools in different towns of China and 
were patronised by the Government. We know that one of 
the monks in the monastery at Hsian-fu was at work under 
the same roof with a well-known Buddhist monk from 
Cabul, trying to translate a Buddhist Sanscrit text into 
Chinese. The prosperity of the Nestorian missions in Cliina 
lasted till the year 84' 1, Avhen the Emperor Wu tung issued 
his edicts for the suppression of all Buddhist and likewise of 
all Christian monasteries. While Buddhism recovered after 
a time, Christianity seems to have been rooted out, and when 
Marco Polo visited Hsian-fu, he tells us that the people were 
all idolators. 

Referring to many of the ethics of Buddhism being, 
identical with the precepts in the Holy Scriptures, it has been 
pointed out that it is erroneous to suppose that Christianity 
has borrowed them from the Buddhists, as they were freely 
taught by Moses and the Prophets centuries before Buddha 
existed :— 

The ethics of Buddhism were evidently derived from those 
nations with whom the inhabitants of India had commercial and 
other relations, including the Jewish, which was in its greatest 
prosperity 500 years before Buddha was said to have existed. * * "' 
Evidence has been given by Strabo and other ancient writers to the 
great commercial intercourse existing in the tenth century B.C., 
between India, Persia, Parthia, Media and the countries south of the- 



BUDDHISM. 101 

Tiuxine, as well as the ancient traffic by sea, which recent research 
had shown to have existed. "■■ *- "■■■, carried on from India round 

Ceylon and up the Red Sea, the ships being mostly manned by 
those intrepid mariners, the Phoenicians. 

On the other hand Roman Catholicism seems to have 
borrowed a little from Buddhism, Buddha himself having 
been made a saint. 

The Buddhism of the first few centuries of the Christian 
■era in China was a vigorous immigrant, fresh and lusty with 
life ; eager to attempt great things in its new chosen home, 
with strength and vigour, prepared to spread its principles : 
and I'eady to endure the fiery baptisms of persecution through 
which it had later on to pass. A very differeirt thing to the 
emasculated descendant that now occupies the land with its 
drones of priests, and its temples ; in which scarce a worthy- 
disciple of the learned patriarchs of ancient days is to be 
found. Received with open arms, persecuted, patronised, 
smiled upon, tolerated, it, with the last phase of its existence, 
has reached not the halcyon days of peace and rest, but its 
final stage, foreshadowing its decay from rottenness and 
corruption ; for it has long passed its meridian. It was at 
the zenith of its power in the tenth and twelfth centuries, 
not only being popular, but exerting great literary influence. 
It excites but little enthusiasm at the present day in China ; 
its priests are ignorant, low, and immoral ; addicted to opium ; 
despised by the people ; lield up to contempt and ridicule; 
and the gibe and joke of the populace. The nuns likewise 
hold a very low position in the public estimation. The 
belief in the transmigration of souls ; the desire for the merit 
of good works in charity bestowed on priests, and gifts to 
the large monasteries, so frequent throughout the length and 
breadth of the land ; as well as the superstitious beliefs in 
charms and masses for the dead; faith in the worship of the 
Goddess of Mercy, and a trust in the efficacy of other gods : — 
all these may be looked upon as the strong supports of 
Buddhism in China at the present day ; but the scoff of the 
infidel, and the sneer of the atheist is slowly undermining 
some parts of this religious structure; and a better religion 



102 THINGS CHINESE. 

and a purer, -svhich will stand true to its colours, Avill have- 
more chance of success in future than Buddhism has had in 
the past. The Light of Asia is setting in obscure darkness, 
while the first glimmering rays of The Light of the World 
are chasing that darkness away, and The Sun of Righteous- 
ness is arising with healing in his wings. 

BooJ/.i reroinmciKh-d. — -Rhys David's 'Buddhism,' ])iiblished by the 
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledsje, gives the best account for the 
general reader of Buddhism, as a religion. Eitel's ' Three Lectures on 
Buddhism,' give, in a iiopular form, and in a few pajres, an account of 
Chinese Buddhism, which is more lengthily treated of in Kdkins"s 'Chinese 
Buddhism'; Beal's •Buddhism in China' is interesting and smaller than the 
last. Edkins's ' Religion in China' contains much on Bufldhism. Beal's 
' Buddliist Literature in China' treats of works translated into Chinese. 
Eitel's ' Hand-book for the student of Chinese Buddliism ' is a dictionary 
of the Sanscrit terms used in Chinese, their translations into the latter, 
■with an account of their meanings. For an interesting account of a paper 
dealing with the etliics of Buddhism .syv ' Hongkong Telegraph,' Ivth Feb., 
1896. Also ,svr 'Chi])sfroma German Workshop,,' Vol. IV.. pp. 445-458. 
for a stranofe account of the canonisation of Buddha himself as a Roman 
Catholic saint. 



BUFFALO (WATER-BUFFALO).— Th\s animal is 
called by the Chinese the water ox, or cow : by naturalists. 
Bos huhalus. Crauford and Dr. Dennys thus describe it: — 

The same useful, powerful, ugly, sluggish, and unwieldy animal 
which exists in all the warm countries of Asia, and which was intro- 
duced into Greece, Egypt and Southern India in the middle ages. It 
is only, however, within ten or twelve degrees of the equator that it is 
found of great size, strength and vigour. * ''- *- The flesh of this 
semi-aquatic animal is coarse. * "'" * The wound inflicted by an 
enraged buffalo is fearful. The victim is generally gored in the thigh, 
the femoral artery being ripped open. 

The buffalo is a dangerous animal for Europeans to 
approach, as it has a repugnance to strangers, but Avith its 
friends is thoroughly docile, and in perfect control of the 
little boys who have the task of driving them to and from 
the fields, and of guiding them when pulling the harrow and 
plough, often riding on their backs. So common is this 
sight that the metaphor of a lad astride a buffalo's back, 
blowing the flute, frequently enters into Chinese descriptions 
of rural life, and the buffalo with the herd-boy thus engaged 
appears in paintings and is used for decorative designs, &c. 



CAMPHOR. 103 

The buffalo can scarcely be said to be covered with hair,. 
a few straggling ones being all that Nature has vouchsafed 
to it ; one author describing it as having ' a hairless hide.' 
Through this scanty pretence for a covering the light black 
colour of the skin shows without any concealment. Each 
horn is nearly semi-circular, and bends downward, while the 
head is turned back so as almost to bring the nose 
horizontal. This peculiar carriage of the head enables the 
animal to submerge nearly the whole of the body and head 
under the surface of the water in the pools and ponds in 
which they deliglit to lie, to cool themselves or to get rid of 
the gnats. It is very curious to see a herd of them thus 
immersed with only the tips of their noses showing. The 
habits of this animal make it cheaper to keep him in good 
condition, while he can do more "work than the ox. The 
milk of the buffalo cow in the South of China is richer than, 
that of the cow in that part of the Avorld. 

CAMPHOR.~Yh{& useful drug is the product of the 
camphor tree, a species of laurel, which grows abundantly by 
in Fuh-Kien and Kwong-tung, and is met with as a timber- 
tree in Kiang-si, Hu-peh and other provinces to some extent. 
The tree attains a large size, is of much use, and gives 
employment to many carpenters, shipwrights and boat- 
builders, the Avood being valuable for the manufacture of 
trunks and chests of drawers. The odour of the wood is 
pleasant, and when fresh and strong of some utility in 
keeping away moths and insects from clothing, the wood 
itself not being subject to the attack of white ants, &c. 
Vessels are also constructed partially or wholly of it as well. 

The drug is employed medicinally by the Chinese, and 
another use they make of it is for thinning lacquer. The 
Chinese are not careful in the preparation of the drug which 
is very impure. Williams thus describes the preparation 
of it : — 

The gum is procured from the branches, roots, leaves, and 
chips by soaking them in water until the liquor becomes saturated; a 
gentle heat is then applied to this solution, and the sublimed camphor 
received in inverted cones, made of rice-straw, from which it is. 
detached in impure grains, resembling unrefined sugar in colour. 



104 THINGS CHINESE. 

Dr. Porter Smith tells us : — It is met with in granular lumps 
or grains, of the colour of dirty snow, and having a strong terebin- 
thinate odour, and a warm, bitter aromatic taste, with an aftertaste 
somewhat cooling. It is not so strong as the English drug, but it is 
more volatile. Very good camphor is brought from Tsiuen-chau fu 
in Fuh-kien. 

Rein says : — Japanese camphor is much purer and more 
valuable, and therefore commands a higher price than Chinese. 

More than one variety of camphor is procurable in the 
Chinese drug shops ; the common dirty stuff, sold at a cheap 
rate, being of little use. The better qualities are either 
from abroad, or have had more care taken in the preparation. 
A variety called icicle-flakes is procured from a different 
species of tree, is said to come from Chang-chau fu, in Fuh- 
kien, and the tree yielding it, * * * * is described as 
growing in Canton province. 

Since the loss of the Island of Formosa, the Chinese 
production of camphor is confined to that of the mainland. 
In a British Consulate Report from Foochow occurs the 
following passage : — 

Camphor trees grow in this neighbourhood, and I cannot but 
think that if the Chinese were sufficiently long-sighted to take proper 
care of the existing trees, and to plant young ones, a considerable 
trade in camphor might be fostered. Heretofore Formosa has been a 
camphor-producing country. Now that this has been transferred to 
Japanese rule, the Chinese, unless they take measures to prevent it, 
will lose the camphor trade entirely. 

Camphor has risen enormously in value lately. It has 
been erroneously thought that this was due to the extended 
use of it in the manufacture of smokeless powder ; but it was 
only employed experimentally at first for that purpose which 
could not have affected the market value. It is, however, 
extensively used in the manufacture of celluloid. 

CAPITAL CITIES.— The country now included in 
■China has been the scene of so many different states in 
ancient times, due to the vicissitudes incident to conquest 
and war as well as to other causes, that various cities have 
been the capital of the empire at different periods of its 
existence. 



CAPITAL CITIES. 105 

flangchow is one of the most famous of these. Marco 
Polo waxes eloquent in his praise of it : The noble and 
magnificent city of Kin-sai,, a name that signifies '■'the 
celestial city," and which it merits from its pre-eminence to 
all others in the world, in point of grandeur and beauty, as 
well as from its abundant delights, Avhich might lead an 
inhabitant to imagine himself in paradise. All writers 
agree in praising its situation, and the beauty of the 
surroundings, as well as the richness of the city, though they 
do not go into the ecstacies of the mediaeval Italian. Hang- 
chow was the metropolis during the latter part of the Sung 
dynasty (A.D. 1129-1280), when the northern part of the 
empire was in the hands of the Kin Tartars. 

The ancient capital of Shan-tu, rendered famous by 
Coleridge's exquisite poem : — 'In Xanadu did Kubhii Khan/ 
■ — is now in ruins. 

The chief city of Shan-tung is Chi-nan-fu. once the 
capital of the ancient state of Tsi (B.C. 1100-1230). 

Kai-fung-fu, or Pien Liang, had the honour of being the 
metropolis from A.D. 960 to 1129. 

The After Hans had their capital at the chief city of 
Sz-chuan, where their rule extended over the West of China. 

Si-ngan-fu, has been the capital of the empire for more 
years than any other city. 

Nanking, I.e., the Southern Capital, has been the 
metropolis of China several times during long periods of her 
history, once from A.D. 317 to 582. It was here that the 
seat of government was established in the former part of the 
Ming dynasty, A.D. 1368-1103, though Hung Wu, the 
founder of that dynasty, intended Hwui-chow to be the 
capital. The famous porcelain tower was here (at Nanking), 
and here it was too that the T'ai P-ing rebels made their 
head-quarters for many years. The Southern Mandarin was 
the court language of China, until displaced by the Northern, 
owing to Nanking being the capital. 



106 THINGS CHINESE. 

Peking is the Northern Capital, and has been so for 
many centuries, but it was not the capital of the whole of 
China until the time of Kublai in A.D. 1264. On the fall 
of the Mongol dynasty, the centre of government was 
transferred to Nanking until A.D. 1411, when Peking again 
became the metropolis, and has remained so ever since. It 
is owing to Peking being the capital that the Northern 
Mandarin is spoken in Peking, otherwise an insignificant 
dialect is the Court language of China. 

Jiockft rccoiiinieH<lcd. — In 'Notes and Queries on Cliina ami .Japan,' 
Vol. I., p. 00, there is a list of capital cities. Sre also the iiitei-estiiig article 
in 'China Mail' of 3rd 8ep.. 18!I2. on '8oine Chinese Capitals.' 

CARVING. — Carving seems to be an art just designed 
for the patient persevering toil of a Chinaman; for no labour 
is too great to bestow on the most minute undertaking, and, 
in a country where time enters so little into the essence of 
life, days and months are lavishly spent on what would be 
thought elsewhere to be unremunerative work. 

Over the fronts of certain shops, such as eating-houses, 
it is common to have a broad piece of wood-work highly 
decorated with carvings of figures, houses, flowers, richly 
gilded, all in alto relievo; and in private dwellings there is 
some carving to be found on the large doors which serve as 
partitions. There is also an amount of it to be found in 
certain boats, especially on the so-called flower-boats, which 
have a screen of carved wood-work, rising to considerable 
proportions, over the entrances of the larger ones. 

Bamboo vases for holding pens are a common article 
for the decorative artist to exercise his skill on. 

Wood, bamboo, stone, ivory, and seeds, all form fit 
subjects for the untiring industry of the Chinese; but all 
this carving in wood, bamboo, and olive seeds, is, according 
to Western ideas, often rendered grotesque in the extreme 
by a rigid adherence to the canons of Chinese art; for 
perspective is ignored, and the harmony of proportion between, 
the different objects is lost sight of. 



CARVING. 107 

Religion causes the production of countless numbers of 
carved images, in wood and stone, in all attitudes and 
positions, decked out in all the different insignia of office, 
or armed v/ith weapons. The best specimen, perhaps, of all 
this motley group is the God of Literature, represented as 
standing on one foot on a monster's head, while one arm is 
stretched to its utmost extent, the hand holding a Chinese 
pen: there is a certain amount of abandonment and freedom 
from the stiff conventionality of the sedate or hideous 
imbecilities which do duty as Chinese idols, the flowing 
drapery and slender form of this personification of Literature 
having lent tliemselves readily to the artistic eye of the 
carver, who has not failed to take advantage of them. 
Specimens of the Eiglit Genii arc also sometimes found, as 
well as other carvings of the same class as that last mentioned, 
in Avhich the natural twistings of the roots or fibres have 
been utilised with skilful touches here and there to heighten 
the effect, or supplement what Nature has left undone. 

Boles of trees are also sometimes made x;se of as curios, 
Mhile stands for ornaments and vases under the skilful 
manipulation of a ^^■orkman, blessed with a certain play of 
fancy, become as curious objects of art as the carved stone 
vessels they support. Chinese ebony, or blackwood, as it is 
likewise called, is largely used for the above purposes and is 
carved into the imitation of lotus leaves, seed-vessels, and 
many other objects. The white-wood carved work of Ningpo 
is much admired; frames for pictures, little models of boats, 
carts, figures of men and animals, and many other objects 
are produced in it. 

The carving in ivory and sandal-wood is perhaps better 
known in the West, as such large quantities of it are made 
for exportation. The concentric balls of ivory have attracted 
much interest and speculation ; there is, however, no trickery 
in their production, but, like most things of the kind amongst 
Chinese, they are the result of patient toil, the balls being 
carved in situ one within the other : the outside ball is first 
carved, and, through the holes thus made, instruments are 



108 THINGS CHINESE, 

introduced and gradually the outside crust, as it were, forming 
the outermost ball, is detaclied from tlie remaining interior 
mass, while, by the same means, the surface of this interior 
mass is carved. This process is repeated with every successive 
ball until a globular mass of intricate hollow balls is the 
result of the ingenuity of the Chinese artist-workman. 

The carved soap-stone ware of Foochow is well known 
amongst the foreign residents in China : models of pagodas, 
shoes, Chinese graves, plates, memorial arches, and many 
other things, are produced in it. The hard seed of the olive 
is elaborately carved in the South into models of boats and 
other objects. Wood carving is of very ancient origin in 
China, though the influence of Buddiiism in the second 
century gave an artistic life to what had before not been 
raised much above a mechanical art. No signatures or dates 
are borne on Chinese carvings ; it is therefore difficult, if not 
imj)ossible, to assign a date to them. 

Bank rfU'diiniu'iidi'd. — " L • Art Chinois,' by M. Paleologue. 

CHESS. — Chess is an ancient game in China, and is 
said to have been invented by the first emperor of the Chow 
dynasty, Wu Wang, B.C. 1120; though it is questioned 
Avhether this Chow dynasty does not refer to one four hundred 
years later. Chess is mentioned in the Chinese classics, but 
the game in olden times appears to have been somewhat 
different to the present one. which came into general use 
after the Sung dynasty. , 

Chess has always been looked upon as a mimic warfare, 
and the likeness is more marked in Chinese chess, for there 
are the general, the secretaries, the elephants, horses, chariots, 
cannon, and soldiers ; the two armies are also divided by a 
river. The similarities between the game as played in the 
West and China are obvious ; but the resemblances between 
that played in China and in other Eastern countries are of 
such a nature as to point to a closer relationship. There are 
sixty-four squares, as on the English board, with sixteen 
pieces on each side ; but here the general points of resemblance 



CHESS. 10^ 

cease, for there is a river running through the middle of the 
board, and the squares are uniform in colour, the pieces not 
being placed on them, but on the intersections of the lines; 
nor are they placed in two rows of eight each, but the first 
row contains nine pieces, consisting of the principal ones, 
while a line of five soldiers is deployed in front near the river, 
and these are supported by two cannon a little to their rear. 
The knight, in the English tour of the board, can only have 
sixty-four moves, and in the course of that number has touched 
every square on the board, but were the Chinese equivalent of 
the knight, viz., the horse, to go on such a round, he would 
have nearly half as many moves again, for the intersections 
of the lines, being the resting places for the pieces, increase th& 
number of such positions to a total of ninety. The general and 
his two secretaries are confined to four squares, Avhich, iinlike 
the other squares on the board, are crossed by diagonal lines ; 
along these lines, and on them alone, the secretaries move, 
but only across one square at a time ; the general also only 
moves one square at a time, in a straight line, but not diagon- 
ally. Though these pieces are confined to the four squares 
they have on account of their positions, being placed at the 
intersections of lines, more than four places that they can 
occupy ; the general has nine points he can rest on, and the 
secretaries five. The elephants, which flank the secretaries 
on each side, are also restricted in their movements, being 
confined to their own side of the board, not being allowed to 
cross the river, but they have more freedom of motion within 
such limits, being permitted to move diagonally through two 
squares, both back and forward. The horses, which are th& 
next pieces, have the curious combination of movement 
peculiar to the Knight in the Western game, viz.: — a straight 
motion followed or preceded by a diagonal one, but, unlike 
tlie English game the Chinese equivalent of the Knight, can 
only move one point forward, sideways or backward, and one 
diagonally ; nor can the horse jump over any other piece. 



110 THINGS CHINESE. 

The chariots take the place of the castles in the English 
game, occupying the same position on the board, having the 
same moves, and they are the most powerful of all the pieces ; 
from the restricted moves of the general (==King), castling is 
impossible. The cannoniers have the same power of move- 
ment as the chariots, but, curiously enough, take, only when 
a piece intervenes, leaping, like an English Knight, over the 
obstruction. The five soldiers move like the English pawns, 
only forward in the first brunt of battle ; they gain increased 
power of motion on crossing the river into the enemy's 
territory, when they move sideways as Avell; there is, however, 
no merit in their reaching the extreme end of the board, for 
they can never move back, and there is no changing them for 
a higher piece. 

The chessmen are called red and black, but the black 
ones are the natural colour of the wood — white. They are 
not carved to represent what they stand for, but have the 
names cut into the top of the wood, being otherwise exactly 
like English draughtsmen. The carved ivory chessmen, 
made by the Chinese workers in ivory are simply meant for 
the foreign market. 

The longitudinal lines are numbered, but not tlie trans- 
verse, and by the use of the names of the chessmen, and of 
the expressions forward, backward, and sideways, a game 
can easily be played from the book, or a game recorded as 
it is played. 

In taking pieces, the captured one is removed, and the 
■capturing one is placed on the point the captured occupied, 
except in the case of the cannonier. The object, as in the 
Englisli game, is to checkmate. The general, though con- 
fined to head-quarters, i.e., the four squares already named, 
is in check if no piece intervenes between him and the 
opposite general on the same straight line. He cannot be 
captured, and, like the English king, cannot move into check. 

The limited power of movement of a number of the 
pieces, as well as the want of a queen, due naturally to the 
low estimation that woman is held in, in the East, restrict. 



CHILDREN. Ill 

it is said, the combinations in Chinese chess more tlian in 
the Western game. Notwitlistanding all, the Chinese game 
lias its own elements of skill. The equilibrium of power 
is not so greatly displaced as at first sight might appear, 
because, of the sixteen chessmen, eleven are principal pieces, 
and only five soldiers, though, with the exception of the 
•chariots, the power of each chessman is less than in the 
Western game. 

Literary men and women often play chess, and it is 
•quite a common subject of Chinese paintings; but it is not 
the pastime of the common people to the great extent it 
appears to be in Japan. 

Different sorts of chess have been played at different 
times in China ; and there is still another game in vogue, 
perhaps of even earlier origin than the common chess, 
which is called ivai-k'et, or ' blockade chess.' There are 324« 
squares, or 361 positions on the board, and 300 pieces, which 
are black and white, and stand as in the common chess, on 
the crossings of the lines. We have not space to go into a 
full account of this game, but will content ourselves with 
saying that the pieces are placed by each player alternately 
on the board, and the object is to surround the opponent's 
men and their crossings, or neutralise their power over 
those near them. 

There is also a three-handed game played upon a 
three-legged board. * * * The "chess of the Three 
Kingdoms." 

Books recommended. — Journal X.C. Br. R.A.S., New Series, No. III.. 
Art. 8, which contain-; a description of ('liinese chess and two printed 
games. The same Journal, New Series, No. Vi ., A rt. (j, compares the Chinese 
game with that played by Western nations. Giles' ' IJistoric China and 
other Sketches,' Article on ' Wei Ch'i,' or the Chinese ' Game of War.' 



CHILDREN.— China is alive with children. If France 
is at one extreme as regards the proportion of children to 
adults, China is at the other, and the whole Chinese nation 



112 THINGS CHINESE. 

will quite agree with the sacred HebreAv Psalmist when he 
sang 'Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them/ 
though they would qualify the statement by changing the 
Avord ' children ' into ' boys.' Yes, the whole land is swarm- 
ing with them, and not the land alone but the water also. 
The small boats in Canton, that paitly take the place of cabs 
and carriages in the West, will not only have representatives 
of a past generation, typified by an ancient grandame almost 
too antiquated to wield an oar, of the present generation in the 
buxom mother, but also of the future generation, which last 
is represented by half a dozen boys and girls of all ages and 
sizes, from the little pickaninny (who is carried pick-a-back 
by a sister not much bigger than himself) to the eldest sister, 
who, being fifteen, is engaged, and at the transition stage 
between girlhood and womanhood. A -walk on shore will 
bring one, at every village and hamlet, into a swarm of 
youngsters, almost as numerous as the swarms of gnats and 
mosquitoes over one's head. The wonder is where they 
come from, and where and how they live. Clothing does not 
cost much; for a number of old rags for swaddling bands is 
all that is provided for the new arrival at first, and then in 
the country side, in summer at all events, a single jacket 
is enough, or in many cases the nut-brown skin of the little 
ones is considered sufficient. Clothing is added with additional 
years, being delayed longer in the case of boys than in that 
of girls. 

Childhood does not appear so charming to our Western 
eyes when surrounded by all the squalor and dirt incident 
to Chinese village and city life ; but, amidst all their filth and 
wretchedness, children will still be children the wide -world 
over, and they have, even amongst the seemingly stolid Chinese^ 
the faculty of calling forth the better feelings so often found 
latent. Their prattle delights the fond father, whose pride 
beams through every line of his countenance, and their quaint 
and winning ways, and touches of nature, are visible even 
under the disadvantages of almond eyes and shaven crowns. 



CHILDREN. lis 

The relative position of the two sexes, at their start in 
life, is clearly shown by the following well-known quotation 
from the classics : — 

'Sons shall be his, — on couches lulled to rest. 

The little ones, enrobed, with sceptres play ; 
Their infant cries are loud as stern behest ; 

Their knees the vermeil covers shall display. 
As king hereafter one shall be addressed ; 

The rest, as princes, in our states shall sway. . 

And daughters also to him shall be born. 

They shall be placed upon the ground to sleep ; 
Their playthings, tiles ; their dress, the simplest worn ; 

Their part alike from good and ill to keep. 
And ne'er their parent's hearts to cause to mourn ; 

To cook the food, and spirit-malt to steep.' 

For a month a Chinese baby is nameless ; then, emerging 
from the state of being a mere unit in babydom, it has a 
feast given in its honour ; a tentative name is bestowed on it, 
or rather, in the expressive phraseology of the Chinese, it 
has its name 'altered' from that of 'Baby' or 'Love' 
to something more distinctive ; and its head is sliaved, — a 
most wise provision in a country where parasites are accepted 
as an infliction of providence to teach patience. Severity is 
held up as a proper treatment for children ; natural affection, 
however, often carries the day, so that there is, as the out- 
come, a constant conflict between the two principles, such as 
the Persians represent as existent between the principles of 
good and evil ; neither, in the case under question, being, 
however, an unmitigated good or an unqualified evil. If 
the child cries, as a rule everything it wants is given to it. 
At other times the parents give way to violent fits of 
temper in their efforts to bring the child to obedience, when 
it is beaten with great cruelty, on the liead, or anywhere, 
Avith sticks of firewood, or anything that comes handy, and, 
like a typhoon, these violent outbursts upset everything. 

Notwithstanding all these trials, as well as the theory 
that play is a waste of time, the Chinese child has a fair 
amount of enjoyment, which it fully appreciates, and makes. 

H 



114 THINGS CHINESE. 

good use of. Marriages galore and funerals, conducted on 
the most approved Salvationist principles., with bands of 
music ; processions and feasts ; toys, primitive in construction 
and cheap in material to be sure- —and what child does not 
know how to enjoy toys--are all specially provided for his 
delectation, and how he eaters into the spirit of everything 
Avith true zest needs only to be seen to be understood. 

New Year's time is the most glorious of ;ill for 
little John Chinaman ! In ,all his fine tosfa^ery he trudsres 
along at his father's side to pay his New YeajV's calls, his 
little brain busy ,at w()rk calculating how many cash he will 
get in presents from his father's acquaintances, while the 
old gentleman himself is thinking of the good bargains that 
this year will bring. ' Kung-hei, fat ts'oi,' here they are, the 
little man bowing and scraping and shaking his chubby little 
fingers in exact imitation of his elders. A veritable chip of 
the old block, he takes his pleasures gravely, but the visits 
over, he evidently enjoys the fun to the full, as with lighted 
joss-stick, as assiduously as a chifonnier. he carefully turns 
over the mass of smoking paper fragments, tlie renniauts of 
the long string of crackers his big brother has just let off, to 
be rewarded by half a dozen which have missed fire. 

But before many years the boy's free childhood is over 
and his education is commenced; his name is again 'altered' 
to a new one, though at the same' time he keeps his child- 
hood's name, or ' milk name' as it is expre5sed sometimes, 
through life. 

CHINA, — The origin of the name by which this country 
is known to the nations of the West is not certain. If we 
are to take the evidence of some ancient Indian books, 
such as the laws of Manu, the name China was in use in 
the twelfth century B.C. It has also been supposed to be 
derived from the family of Tsin, but this would give a later 
origin to it. , The chief of this family obtained eventually, 
after having made history for some centuries, sway over 



CHINA. 113 


tlie whole of China, and even long anterior to that period, 
the kingdom subject to this sept, being situated at the 
north-west portals of China, might have had its name given 
by strangers to the rest of the land. 

Cathay is a designation of a much later date, being 
derived from the Ki-tah, or Khitan, (hence Khitai, Khata, or 
Cathay) Avho ruled the North of China in the tenth century. 
This name was used for nearly a thousand years by the 
inhabitants of Central Asia, and from them it spread to other 
nations. The Russians still call China Khitai. It is 
interesting and curious to notice the pairs of names which 
have been applied to China, those that used them being 
often ignorant that they Avere one and the same country : 
one being 'the name of the great nation in the Far East 
as known by land,' and learned from overland travellers, 
the other its name as known by sea, and learned from 
navigators. We cannot do more hei'e than just name them 
in couples,^ — Seres, Sinae : Khitai, ]\Iachin ; Cathay, China. 
Xone of these names are used by the natives themselves, 
riie 'Celestial Empire' has some Chinese excuse for its 
origin; 7'''in-C/(OW, which Williams translates as 'Heavenly 
Dynasty,' being used to a slight extent in the sense of the 
'Kingdom Mhich the dynasty appointed by heaven rules 
over,' but not being a term of general application among the 
common people. The latter use several names : Chung Kivok, 
' The Middle Kingdom' — and it is possible to obtain native 
maps of the world with China not only in the middle, but 
monopolising nearly the whole of the map, while England 
and other countries are represented as small islands or single 
cities lying round its borders. Another common name is 
Tong Shan, 'The Hills (or Country) of T-ong '; the T-'ong 
(T'ang) dynasty being one of the most celebrated in ancient 
history, the name in all probability took its rise then. 
From the same source the usual name in vogue, in the South 
of China, for the people, is T'ong Yan, ' the men of T-'ong/ 
while in the North it is Han Jin, 'the men of Hiin,' Han 
again being the name of another ancient dynasty. 

11 2 



116 THINGS CHINESE. 

The following names also appear for the people and 
country in literature, viz., Lai Man, or Hhe black-haired 
race'; Chung ]Va Kiuok, 'The Middle Flowery Kingdom/ in 
contradistinction to n^joi tei, ' the outlying lands.' 

An old name for China is Wd Hd, 'The Glorious Ha;' 
Ha again being an ancient dynasty, while the most modern 
name is Tai Ts'ing Kwoh, ' The Great Pure Kingdom/ so 
named after the present, or Ts'ing dynasty. 

Different religions have also bestowed their appellations 
on this mucb named country : the Buddhists have called it 
by the Hindoo name of Chin Tan, or ' Dawn,' and Chin Nd ; 
and the Mohammedans Tung To, or 'Land of the East.* 
The former, Edkins says, ' may be the Chinese of Ptolemy.' 
Th^ general concensus of opinion now is that the 'Land of 
Sinim,' mentioned in the Book of Isaiah, is China. In. 
modern Latin, that used by learned men in modern times.. 
Lingua sinica is the Chinese language ; and the term sino- 
logue is one applied to scholars of the Chinese language. 
Again the Seres of the Greeks and Romans are also considered. 
to be the Chinese. 

Bool's yrconnncmJeih — Edkin's •Buddhism.' Williams's 'Middle King- 
dom.' Gillespie's 'Lund of Sinim.' Siu- also Yule's 'Travels of Marco Polo/" 
Vol. I., iutrodnctioii. p. 11. For the arguments in support of the Sei^et^ 
"being the Chinese. «r Anthon's ' Classical Dictionar.y,' Article Seres, where 
luimei'ous authorities are quoted. Koman authorities are also given iu 
Andrew's ' Latin-English Dictionary,' as well as in Cordier's ' Bibliotheca 
-Sinica.' 

CHINESE ABROAD. — Bow well adapted John 
Chinaman is for going abroad, the following quotation from 
Sir Walter Medhurst's pen will show : — 

'The phases of character in which the Chinese possess the 
most interest to us Western peoples, are those which so peculiarly 
ht them for competing in the great labour market of the world. They 
are good agriculturists, mechanics, labourers, and sailors, and they 
possess all the intelligence, delicacy of touch, and unwearying" 
patience which are necessary to render them first rate machinists 
and iiianufacturers. They are, moreover, docile, sober, thrifty, 
industrious, self-denying, enduring, and peace-loving to a degree.. 



CHINESE ABROAD. IIT 

They are equal to any climate, be it hot or frigid : all that is needed 
is teaching and guiding, combined with capital and enterprise, to 
convert them into the most efficient workmen to be found on the face 
of the earth. '■' Wherever the tide of Chinese emigration 

has set in, there they have proved themselves veritable working bees, 
iind made good their footing to the exclusion of less quiet, less 
exacting, less active, or less intelligent artizans and labourers.' 

It is not only in recent years that the Chinese have gone 
abroad : they go now as emigrants, but records show that 
they were as enterprising and daring in their expeditions 
in former periods as any Western nations were at such times. 
The use of the mariner's compass enabled the Chinese to 
put to sea with a confidence they would otherwise not have 
possessed; for it came in as a dernier ressort when fogs 
obscured the head-lands by day, or mists clouded the stars 
ut night. The compass was first usad by the geomancers 
(See Article on Fung Shui), Avho even observed its variation. 
A simpler kind was employed at sea, as all the surrounding 
concentric circles, with the names of the zodiacal signs, 
&c., &c., &c., Avere unnecessary there ; and this compass^ 
so primitive in its construction — and it is interesting to 
notice that it was originally a floating compass — has been 
used by the Chinese 'for about eight hundred years.' They 
took voyages to Japan and Corea — one to the latter country 
being undertaken three hundred and seventy years before 
Christopher Columbus launched his frail barques in search 
of the new world across the Atlantic. 

They not only went in their own vessels, but during the 
T'ang dynasty, in the ninth century, the Chinese merchants 
at Canton were in the habit of chartering foreign — probably 
Arab — vessels with foreign sailing masters to trade between 
Canton and Colombo. * * * * They took carrier 
pigeons with them and sent back word by them to their 
charterers. 

The Mongols, ruling at one time in both China and 
Persia, carried on intercourse between these two countries 
by sea- -thus semi-circumnavigating Asia — in large fleets 



118 TJIIXGS CHINESE. 

carrying ambassadors and merchandise. Aided by the 
compass, and taking advantage of the north-east monsoon, 
they started on their long and hazardous voyage, returning 
Avith the favouring gales of the south-east monsoon. Traffic- 
was even kept up to recent years, within the memory of the 
write]', with the numerous ishinds to the south-east of Asia 
in the neighbourhood of the Straits Settlements, Borneo and 
Celebes, and the same navigation was carried on between the 
North and South of China till the steamer traffic drove the 
slow and unwieldly junk from the trade. In olden days, how- 
ever, not only Java, but India, Ceylon, the Gulf of Persia, and 
Arabia were all visited by tlie enterprising and commercial 
Chinese. All this was done before the days of Vasco de 
Gama, and the credit of the first use of the mariner's compass 
must be awarded to the Chinese. The Arabs borrowed 
it from tliem, and it then passed to the Red Sea and the 
Mediterranean. 

The strong, unreasoning opposition to the Chinese in 
America has drawn special attention to them in that quarter 
of the globe, but, notwithstanding so much talk about them, 
the numbers that have gone over are not so large as one 
would naturally have expected, for in the United States, in 
1880, there were only 105,642, and in 1890, 107,475. 
In 1894, 105,312 registered themselves, out of what was 
.stated to be, in round numbers, 110,000. About 8,000' 
registered in the Pacific States, 6;247 in New York, and 
1,784 in Pennsylvania, New York has 1,000 Chinese 
laundries in 1895. There is a regular Chinese town within 
the city of San Francisco with a jJopulation of 30,000. Two 
theatres, sixteen opium dens, and one hundred and ten 
gambling dens. The Chinese are found as far north as Alaska. 
The greater number of them seem to be in the Western 
States. In 1890, 96,844, or 9011 per cent, were in the 
Western portion of the country. The rate of increase since 
1870 has been as follows: 1860 to 1870, 80-91 per cent.: 
1870 to 1880, 66-88 per cent.; 1880 to 1890, 1-91 per cent.,. 
or an increase of 2,010. 



CHINESE ABROAD. W^ 

There were 4.383 Chinese in Canada in 1881. Despite the poll- 
tax of $50.00 Gold per head, which is exacted from every Chinaman 
entering Canada, "•- "'•■ '■ 14,000 Chinese immigrants have arrived 
in Canada since the tax was instituted in 1886, yielding nearly 
$700,000 to the federal treasury. As domestics,, market gardeners, 
and laundrymen, they fill so important a place in the life of British 
Columbia that repeated agitation for increased restrictions upon their 
entry has as yet failed to produce any effect .at Ottawa. * * A 

monster petition has [in July, 1896] been got up, asking the Dominion 
Government to increase the poll-tax to §500 — which has beefi^tidely 
signed in the province, reciting that Chinese labour is driving out white 
labour in the mining, salmon fishery, and other industries. * * '•' 
The new Canadian Premier is, it is said, pledged to carry out the 
wishes of the province. 

The numbers that entei'ed the Dominion have fluctuated 
in dift'erent years : for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1891, 
it was 2,114; while the next year it was 3 276. They are 
pretty ' numerous ■ in Bi'itish Columbia and Vancouver. 
Eleven year's ago, there were some 5,000 Chinese in the city 
of Victoria alone. It was with their aid that the Western 
section of the .great :• Canadian Pacific Railway, wag con- 
structed, and they have been, the pioneers of, or aids to> 
many valuable industries and enterprises being opened up. 
The construction of the railroaid across. the United States .was 
also largely duetto- their.ihelpJ^Mir- ■• ••• : • ; ''.i,-.' 

In Trinidad there were, about twenty years ago, 4,000 or 
5,000 Chinese, but they have decreased to probably about 
2,000 or 3,000. They used to work in sugar plantations, but are 
now principally shopkeepers, &fc. There were three Chinese 
males in Grenada in 1891, out of a population of 53,209. 
In the Leeward Islands, by the census of 1891, there were 83 
males and 39 females, natives of China, making a total of 122. 
In Antigua the numbers were G6 and 3, making a total of (39. 
In Jamaica, in 1891, they had increased to males 373, females 
108, total 481, of '^vhdiii"347'w^re Borhifl China; thus lising 
from -02 of the total population in 1881, to -08 in 1891. 'In 
Cuba and'Porfo Rr<!;o, in' '1877, 'there AVerfe' 43,8 11 'Chinesfe- ' 

In Bi'itish lijuiana, by the, cen&us,. of 18,81) ither^i .were 
4,393 Chinese', while their estimated n,umber, in 1887 ^yia.s 
males 2,115, females 1,061, total 3,176; and in 1888, 3,074, 



120 THINGS CHINESE. 

In 1893, there seem to have been about the same number, 
viz., 3,000, for in the same year the l^egislature of British 
Guiana offered a bounty of %2o a head for 5.000 Chinamen 
from the United States. They were wanted to work under 
contract on sugar plantations and in gold mines. 

In Surinam or Dutch Guiana, Avith a population of 
.57.000 inhabitants, there is a sprinkling of Chinese. 

In Chile, in 1885, the Chinese numbered 1,164. 

In Peru there are 50,000 Asiatics who are chiefly Chinese. 

In Mexico, in 1893, there were said to be about 3,000 
Chinese, of which number 600 were employed in the mines in 
the State of Sinaloa. 

In Hawaii, in 1884., there were 17,939 Chinese. In 1890 
there were lo.OOO. Until 1886, Chinese labourers were 
largely employed in the sugar plantations of Hawaii ; after 
that, Japanese took the places they had filled. As sugar 
fell in price, the Chinese, being cheaper labourers, were 
taken on again, and hundreds of them arrived in the 
Islands for that purpose, until, in 1893, there were 40,000 
tsettled in the Sandwich Islands. Many Chinese hold very 
good positions, including several Chinese lawyers. 

In Mauritius and its dependencies by the census of 1891 
there was a total of 3,151 Chinese, of whom 9 were females, 
being a decrease in numbers, as the previous census showed a 
Chinese population of 3,558. 

In 1890 they were increasing largely in numbers in 
Kimberloy, having established themselves in 75 shops, many 
•<5f them being employed as masons, carpenters, and painters. 

In India and Ceylon there are some Chinese to be found, 
and there is said to be unmistakable evidence of their presence 
in the Mysore in ancient times. Quite recently, even further 
■evidence of their work, it is considered, has been discovered, 
for while sinking a main shaft in the Harnhalli gold mine, a 
number of mining implements of various kinds were found 
which had been used by the old workers in their work a 



CHINESE ABROAD. 121 

thousand years or more ago, and it is supposed that the 
workings were made by Chinese. The tools are said to be 
■like Chinese ones and unlike Hindoo ones. 

In Burmah they are numerous. Sir L. Griffin considers 
that the future of Burmah belongs to the Chinese. A great 
proportion of the trade of Rangoon is in their hands. They 
are numerous in all the commercial towns up country, such 
as Mandalay, &c., and have increased very rapidly — none 
of the indigenous races, such as the Burmese, Taliens or 
Karens, have multiplied so greatly. They are wanted in 
such places where the population is small. They possess the 
very qualities, which the Burmese lack, and are respectable 
citizens. ^ * * * They ore the best of all immigrants in 
the East. For centuries past the Western Chinese have 
had commercial intercourse with Burmah, and a few hundreds 
were settled as merchants in Bhamo, Mandalay, Fangyan, 
and other places, but the British annexation of the country 
has increased their number : so that there are now probably 
3,000 or 4,000 Yun-nan and Sz-chuan men, living in Burmah, 
who are in the habit of taking Burmese wives, the sons of 
these unions ffoinof to school in Yunnan to learn Chinese, 
and learning Burmese in the land of their birth. From 
South-Eastern China the immigration has lasted many years, 
but in small numbers until recently, when British rule 
afforded greater security. There are now probably some 
25,000 Chinese from the Eastern coast in Burmah, which, 
witli the 3,000 or 4,000 already mentioned as from the West 
of China, would make not far short of 30,000 Chinese in 
Burmah, there being 10,000 in Mandalay, while there are 
probably 16,000 or 18,000 in Rangoon, though we have seen 
it stated that there are 40,000 in the latter city alone. 

There were about 1,000 Chinese settled in Haiphong 
about ten years ago, where they have monopolised every 
pursuit requiring skill, perseverance, and commercial acumen. 
In Haiphong, in 1890, out of a population of 15,000, 5,600 
were Chinese. 



122 THINGS CHINESE. 

In the City of Hue, in the capital of the Kingdom of 
Annani, 800 are Chinese, the total population being estimated 
at 100,000; and in Touiane, Haiphong, and other ports 
in Tonkin, the trade is chiefly in the hands of the- 
Chinese. 

The populati(ai of Cochm-China, in 1889, was 1,864,214. 
of which 56.528 were Chinese. In Saigon, cnit of a population 
of 16,213, there were 7.346 Chinese. 

In the town of Cholon, four miles from Saigon, there 
were, in 1889, 14,94 1< Chinese, out of a population of 37,441. 

The people [of Cambodia] are apathetic and indolent. 
and have allowed the trade to fall into the hands of the 
Chinese 

Tliere are nearly one million and a half of Chinese 
subjects resident in Siam, and the general revenue is farmed 
out to them. The whole population of Siam is estimated at 
from six to ten millions. Bangkok is occupied by a mixed 
Siamese and Chinese population, estimated at from 400,000 
to 500,000 [a later estimate puts it at 350,000]. As in so 
many other parts of Further India, the Chinese have here 
almost monopolised the local trade. 

We point with just pride to the great Chinese trading com- 
munities of Hongkong and Singapore, which have gi-own up under 
our fostering care. The annual immigration from South China 
amounts to over 200,000 per annum, while about three-fourths of that 
number annually return to their native land. In and around the 
Straits Settlements we are supposed to have at least 600,000 Chinese. 
not counting those in Borneo, the Dutch colonies, or the Philippines. 
If all territory under direct British rule be included, they slightly 
outnumber the children of the soil. 

For scores of years they have been pouring into Malaysia, 
and all surruunding islands. An early intercourse between 
China and these islands is known to have existed. One 
work ascribes the beginning of this to the fifth century of 
the Christian era, and this intercourse was afterwards renewed 
in the tenth century. When the Portuguese first arrived in. 
this part of the world in the sixteenth century, they found 
Chinese junks lying at Malacca, and what was evidently a 



CHINESE ABROAD. 123 

prosperous trade being carried on by the Chinese. From all 
that can be gathered they seemed in these early days to 
have been simply birds of passage. At all events there is no 
evidence to show that they settled down amongst their new 
surroundings and became inhabitants of the land. As to- 
the present day : — 

The annual influx of Chinese emigrants into the Peninsuhi 
cannot be ascertained ; but some notion of its amount may be formed 
from the the number which lands in Singapore. This, on an average 
of years, is about loo.ooo, (in 1894 it was over 137,000) of whom about 
one-fourth settle in the island, the majority being sent on to Penang 
or dispersed among the neighbouring States. The number that 
return yearly to China from the same port is aboui 70,000, most of 
them resorting to it from neighbouring countries for the convenience 
of a passage. 

The emigrants from China are all from the four maritime 
proviaces of the empire— Kwongtung, P'okien, Chekiang and 
Kiangnan. Four-fifths of the whole number come from Amoy and 
Swatow, and about a tenth part from Canton ; the emigrants from the 
two more northerly provinces forming but a very small fraction. 
Nearly all the emigrants consist of the labouring classes — fishermen, 
artisans, and common day-labourers. They usually arrive at their 
places of destination in great poverty, and are obliged to mortgage 
their labour to their resident countrymen in consideration of their 
passage-money. 

From the nature of the emigration, the proportion of males 
io females is always great. In Singapore the males are to the females 
in the proportion of five to one. The result, of course, is tliat the 
increase of the Chinese population by natural means is very slow. 

The Chinese women have increased by 18 per thousand 
in ten years. This paucity of women is one of the peculiar 
featui'es of Chinese emigration. Naturally children are also 
absent, for if those going to try their fortunes abroad have 
wives and children they are left at home, where they are 
considered to be more the adjuncts of the ancestral abode 
than the peculiar property of the individual himself, to say 
nothing of being companions of the father and husband. 
No doubt the abject poverty of most of the emigrants is also- 
one cause for all home ties being sundered ; for none of the 
middle or upper classes are to be found amongst them. 

The total population of the Straits Settlements, in 1891. 
■was 512,905. The increase of the Chinese, from 1881 to 
1891, was 53,662 or 307 per cent., while the Malays and 



124 THINGS CHINESE. 

other natives only increased 9 5 per cent. There are 4,450 

Chinese in every 10,000 of tlie population. They are Hok 

Kiens (nativ(\s of the Fuk Kien province). Teo CiieAvs (natives 

of the neighbourhood of Swatow), Cantonese, Hakkas (see 

Article on Hakkas), or Khehs (as the Hakkas are called in 

the Amoy or Swatow speech), Hylams (natives of the Island 

of Haiuam), and Straits-born Chinese. The census of 1891 

gives the population of Singapore Island as 184,o44, the 

Chinese being 121,908 and the Malays 35,992. Penang had 

87,920 Chinese, and Malacca 18,161" 

The population of the State [ofjohore] is remarkable for con- 
taining a larger number of Chinese than of Malays. The exact 
figures have not been ascertained, but probably come to 200,000, 
viz.: Malays, 35,000. Chinese, 150,000, and Javanese, 15,000. More 
than half are to be found within 15 miles of the Singapore Straits. 
The Chinese are chiefly found as cultivators of gambier and pepper, 
spread over about this range of country in the extreme southern end 
of the Peninsula, nearest to Singapore, of which Johore has been 
described as the "back country." These cultivators go from Singapore, 
the capitalists for whom they cultivate are Singapore traders, and all 
their produce and most of their earnings find their way back to 
Singapore again. 

In Negri Sembilan, a group of nine small states, the 
entire population in 1891, was 41,617, of whom about 5;511 
were Chinese, and amongst them 37 females. Of them, Dr. 
Dennys says, 'The number of Chinese engaged in tapioca 
estates and in mines have greatly increased, and, for years 
to come, there must be a perceptible monthly increase.' 

In Sungei Ujong, with a total population in 1891 of 
23,000, 18,000 were Chinese. In Jelebu also, the Chinese 
form a large proportion of the population. 

In 1891, the census gave the population of Selangor as 
81,592, of whom 50,884 were Chinese. They, both as 
traders and miners, form the most important element of the 
population, and are emigrants from the south of China, 
being chiefly composed of Hakkas (Khehs) 'and Cantonese. 

At Larut, and at the chief mining settlements in the 
interior of the state of Perak, the Chinese form a large 
part of the population. In Perak, in 1891, there were 
94,345 Chinese, or 44 per cent, of the whole population. 



CHINESE ABROAD. 125 

They have increased 363 per cent, since 1879, and are nearly 
equal to the Malay population which, in 1891, was 96,719. 
The total population of the state was 214,254. In Pahang 
there were, in 1891, 3.241 Chinese out of a total population 
of 57,462. 

The Chinese who have been settled in most Bornean 
towns for generations, conduct all the trading operations, 
the natives being indolent and wanting in enterprise. 
Sandakan, the capital of British Xorth Borneo, had a 
population of 7,132 in 1891, of whom 3,627 Mere Chinese. 
In Labuan they number over 1,000, are the chief traders, 
and most of the industries of the Island are in their hands, 
the total population being under 6,000. The Chinese seem 
destined to be the future inhabitants of this part of the 
world ; the demand for them is increasing. They land as 
coolies, but their industry and superior qualities to those 
of the natives raise them speedily to the position of planters, 
shopkeepers, and merchants. These Chinese are mostly 
Hakkas, Cantonese, Hainanese, Swatow, and Amoy men. 

The population of Java, in the year 1890 "•■■ *, amounted 

to over 24x00,000, of whom the Chinese mustered only 242,000. 
In the islands lying beyond Java the Chinese are less numerous, 
numbering about 210,000, and of these 80,000 are settled in Deli 
and on the East coast of Sumatra. There are 24,000 in Rhio, mostly 
employed in cultivating the pepper and gambler gardens of the- 
Sultan and other native chiefs. In Banca and Billiton there are 
35,000 engaged in tin-mining. In the western division of Borneo, 
there are 32.000, who earn a living by mining, cultivation and trade. 
In all these islands the Chinese are found to be not a dangerous but 
a highly useful element in the population. Without Chinese labour, 
tobacco growing in Deli and tin-mining in Banca and Billiton would 
certainly not have reached the development they have now attained. 
As to the western division of Borneo, where the Chinese were 
formerly so turbulent and rebellious, their pride has been so 
thoroughly taken down bv military force that during the last forty 
yeai's the Government has effectually kept them in check. In tbe 
outlying islands, the natives are of a harder stamp than the 
Javanese, and do not allow themselves to be turned to undue 
profitable account by the Chinese. In Java, this is otherwise, and 
the Chinese through their control of the revenue farming system 
have a wide field for extortion and " sciueezing " among the people. 
Danger from the Chinese in Java arises not from their number,, 
but from the power thus put into their hands. 



126 THINGS CHINESE. 

In the Anamba Islands there Avere, in 1892, it is said, 
about 1,500 Malays and 600 Chinese. 

It is estimated that there are 100 000 Chinese in the 
Philippine Islands, of which, upwards of 40.000 dwell in 
the capital and its environs. During the year 1892, 5,273 
Chinese arrived in Manila in excess of those who left during 
that year. The number, in 18i)0, was 8,867 arrivals in excess 
of departures. 

The total number of Chinese in Japan, in 1888, was 4',.805. 
In 1890, Yokohama had a Chinese population of 2.625, 
out of a foreign population of 4.218, and Nagasaki 684, 
out of a total of 1,004 foreign residents. In 1889, Hakodate 
had 33 Chinese residents out of a total of 69 foreigners. 
Osaka had 135 Chinese, and Kobe 767. The war has 
doubtless altered all these figures, and it has also taken 
such of the Chinese population of the Island of Formosa 
as remained there under the Japanese fl.ag. 

In Corea there were, a few years ago, only 100; but 
immigration has been extensive enough to add \evy mate- 
rially to their number, so that there were, in 1890, 1,057 
Chinese, and in 1894, 1,234. 

In Siberia, they are swarming along the auriferous 
banks of the Upper Yenisei River. From tlie 1st of January, 
1893, till the 23rd of April of the same year, when any 
further arrivals were stopped, 10,260 Chinese coolies entered 
ATadivostock with passports from Chefoo. The Chinese in 
Vladivostock numbered 30,000, in 1895, and carry on 
various businesses in a small way. 

If it had not been for Chinese industry and Chinese labour 
and enterprise, many parts of Australia would have remained worth- 
less to the present time, and, after all, the Chinese competes with 
the European in Australia in comparatively few trades. By the 
Chinese in Australia the heavy poll-tax is felt to be too restrictive, 
more especially to Chinese having places of business in two or more 
cf the Australian Colonies, [for they are restricted in going from 
one colony to another] while it is contended that serious hurt is 
done to the shipping interests on account of the veto practically 
establised against Chinese immigration from Hongkong and adjacent 
ports. Mr. Way Lee maintains that the plea set up by our 



CHINESE ABROAD. 127 

Australian cousins that the Chinese work too cheaply is altogether 
fallacious. No Chinaman, he says, will work for less than ^i per 
Aveek in Australia ; where, as on the other hand, Japanese labour 
can be obtained for 30 shillings per month, and Kanaka labour for 
the astonishing low figure of £6 a year per man. Added to this, 
each Chinese landing in New South Wales has to pay a poll- 
tax of ^100; in Queensland ^30; in Victoria, South Australia, 
Tasmania, Western Australia, or New Zealand, ^lO; and in some 
of these Colonies they are not allowed to work in the mines. 

In Western Australia, further legislation, we understand, 
has been taken against the Chinese, who numbered in that 
Colony, in 1893, 1,378. 

The total population of Australia is about 4,000,000, out 
of which there are some 40,000 of Chinese race — about 
one Chinaman in every hundred of the population. 

In Queensland, in 1890, there were 7,242, of whom 92 

were females ; the proportion of Chinese to the total estimated 

population has steadily decreased in numbers for more than 

five years, for, in 1884, the proportion was 4-16 percent.; in 

1885, 375 per cent. ; in 1886, 2-87 per cent. : in 1887, 2-50 

per cent. ; in 1888, 2' 13 per cent. ; in 1889, 1'89 per cent. ;. 

and in 1890, 1'71 per cent. The death rate of Chinese in 

Queensland is lower than that of the European races. Two 

Chinese women were mari'ied in 1890 in Queensland, and, 

considering the animus felt against the Chinese there, it is 

not surprising to find that they were married to their own 

countrymen, but of the 24 Chinamen married during the same 

period, 22 were married to natives of Queensland, and English, 

Scotch, and Irishwomen. 

In the period extending from iS65 to 1S85, 295 Chinamen 
married in Victoria alone. Of their brides, only four were from their 
own country. Of the remainder, 138 wers nativ^es of the colony — all, 
with five exceptions, white women— 49 were born in other Australian 
colonies, 53 in England and Wales, 15 in Scotland, 34 in Ireland, 2 in 
Germany, and 2 in the United States; while France and Spain had 
the distinction of each furnishing a lady unconventional enough to 
ally herself with a swain from the Flowery Land. 

In Victoria, the Chinese are likewise decreasing in 
numbers. In 1881, they numbered 12,123, while in 1891 
the figures were, including half-castes, 9,377, of whom 605 
■were females. 



128 THINGS CHINESE. 

In South Australia, in 1891, there Avere 2,734-. They 
are found in Northern Australia, where, the Earl of Kintore 
says, they have had the greatest share in its development, so 
far as it has gone ; and it is considered that they are in- 
dispensable for its further development. In the Northern 
Territory of South Australia there were in 1891, 3,392 Chinese- 
out of a total population of 4,898. 

The entire population of New South Wales, by the 
census of 1891, was 1,132,234, of which the Chinese number 
14,150. The first genuine Chinese paper printed in Aus- 
tralia was started in Sydney in 1895 under the title of 
-'The Chinese Australian Herald." 

There Avere 844 Chinese in Tasmania in 1881. 

There were 4,585 Chinese in New Zealand in 1889, but 
the poll-tax of £10 imposed, in 1881, on every Chinese new 
arrival, who intended to be a resident reduced the immigrants 
from 1,029 in 1881 to 23 in 1882. The figures rose again 
to 354 in 188T, but they again fell off"; and, in most of the 
Australian Colonies, they have decreased in numbers — the 
Northern Territory is an exception — owing to the restrictive 
legislation against them. 

There have been 178 Chinese naturalised in New Zealand 
during the ten years ending in 1889, more than 9 per cent 
of those naturalised during that time being Chinese, they 
occupying the fourth place on the list of those naturalised ; 
Germans, Danes, and Swedes taking the lead. 

There were three Chinese in British New Guinea in 
1890-1891. 

It will thus be seen what numbers of them are scattered 
over the Avorld. Even London has a fluctuating population 
of them, chiefly sailors and firemen of the steamers trading 
with China. The 'Pall Mall Gazette' suggested, a few years- 
ago, a solution of the modern, ever-present, 'servant girF 



CHINESE PEOPLE. 129^ 

difficulty to be found in their employment by the harassed 
English matron, as household servants. It has been said 
that :— 

'Many native labourers in Germany have been displaced by 
Chinese,' while a Mecklenburg paper is stated to have ' regularly 
advertised contracts for Chinese labour, the prevalent term of agree- 
ment being for ten years, a cash payment of 200 marks being made 
in advance.' The Germans in East Africa have imported Chinese 
labour ' for agricultural purposes, as the natives will not work more 
than is absolutely necessary to earn a bare subsistence ;' 24.0 Chinese 
coolies having been sent from Singapore. 'The planters in 
Portuguese Africa have resolved to engage a large number of Chinese 
contract labourers for their fields in that couutry, owing to the great 
want of labour.' 

' In German New Guinea, experience has taught * that 

for plantation work no other labourers can compete with the Chinese.'' 
The coolie traffic of Holland with China is nearly ' half a million per 
annum ; while that of England is under 50,000 ; of Portugal, a few 
hundreds ; of Germany, Hawaii, and the South American Republics, 
hardly as much.' 

Like the Briton, the Chinese are found nearly every- 
where; like him, the Chinaman has the faculty of making 
himself at home abroad ; and. like the Briton, he looks 
forward, after making his pile, to return to his home and 
spend the remainder of his days in ease and comfort ; and 
again, like the Briton, the countries he blesses by his presence 
OAve, in some cases, their salvation, and in others incalculable 
benefits to him. 

BooliS recnmincnded. — The information, wliere not original, has been 
L-uUed from an immense variety of sources too numerous to particularise.. 
Interesting: information about the Chinese in the Straits Settlements is 
given in Dr. Dennys's 'Descriptive Dictionaiy of British Malaya' The 
Census Returns of the Straits Settlements and other British Colonies may 
also be mentioned. 

CHINESE PEOPLE, Characteristics of.— Wii]\ 
regard to the physical characteristics, the Chinese belong 
to the Mongolian family, possessing its yello^vish .skin, 
lank, coarse, black hair, and almost rudimentary beard and 
whiskers, and scanty hair-growth on the rest of the body, 
prominent cheek-bones, eyes almost invariably black, lack- 
lustre in expression, and obliquely sloping towards the nose, 
there being either no bridge to that organ, or in other cases 
scarcely any, and board nostrils; there is also 'a small flap of 

I 



130 THINGS CHINESE. 

skin of the upper eyelid overlapping just above the inner ' 
angle of the eye, at least, in South China. The face is round; 
they have small hands and feet, and long tapering fingers. 
The ankles of many of the common boat-women are very 
neat. 'They are well built and proportioned, but short in 
stature, especially in the South, where a man of six feet 
in height is such a rarity as to be nicknamed "giant." ' The 
average height in the North is a few inches above that in 
the South ; and difference exists as to complexion in the 
different parts of the empire and between different classes, 
owing to exposure to the sun and the weather, which falls to 
the lot of some, and which others escape. This is most 
strikingly manifest in the skin of the Cantonese boatman, 
which will be well browned all over the body, except round 
his waist, where, being constantly covered by his rolled up 
trousers, it is of a considerably lighter hue. The Swatow 
fisherman is often swarthy almost to blackness, nor is there 
a mid-region round his loins of a lighter shade, as he 
works in the garb of old Adam minus the fig leaves. The 
faces of some of the ladies are fairer, shielded as they are 
from all exposure, than those of many of the inhabitants of 
the South of Europe. With a dark skin one scarcely expects 
to find soft texture, but that of even the common women 
is soft. To a stranger, newly arrived from Western lands, 
there appears a remarkable sameness in all the people — all 
are black-haired, black-eyed, with clean-shaven heads and 
faces, except the elders who cultivate their scanty beards, 
and all exemplifying the same general characteristics — they 
present so much uniformity to one unaccustomed to such a 
mass of an unknown and distinct type that the question 
often presents itself: — How do those who are brought into 
intimate relationships with them distinguish one from the 
other? And a ready answer presents itself in what seems to 
the uninitiated the, analogous case of a shepherd knowing 
each sheep under his care. A few months residence and 
familiarity with the new type shows that amidst the general 
uniformity there are many points of difference, and a slight 



CHINESE PEOPLE. 



131 



appreciation of what constitutes Chinese beauty is occasionally 
awakened. That these crude opinions of Chinese physical 
sameness are far from the truth it needs but to instance the 
similar opinion held by the Chinese as to ourselves. 

In an examination of Chinese for colour-blindness, 1,200 
men and women were tested with these results : — Colour- 
blind, 20; completely green-blind, 14; completely red- 
blind, 5 ; and one partially so. The Chinese are often unable 
to distinguish between green and blue, their language follow- 
ing suit to a great extent, for there is one word which 
means both green and blue. 

Notwithstanding the insanitary conditions of their life, 
many of the Chinese appear to attain to a good old age ; the 
hard life and exposure to which many of the labouring 
classes are subject, age many of them, on the other hand, very 
soon, especially is this the case with the women, Avho are 
scarcely passed the bloom of girlhood before coarse features 
show the strain on their physical powers. 

After this general description of the physical character- 
istics of the Chinese, we give a scientific account of the Ideal 
Mongolic type compared with the Ideal Caucasic type, for 
which we are indebted to Keene's 'Asia,' edited by Sir 
R. Temple : — 



Shape of Head ... 

Facial Angle 

Features 

Cranial Capacity 

Cheek-bones - - 
Ears 

Mouth ... - 



Nose 



Ideal iloNGOLic 
Type. 



Xoruially brach3''ceplialic, 
■i.e.^ round horizontally. 

Prognathous, index Nos. 
76 to 68. 

Square, angular, and 
flattened. 

1,200 to 1,800 cubic cen- 
timetres. 

High and prominent. 

Large and standing out 
from the head. 

Large with thick lips. 

Broad, flat, short, and 
somewhat concave. 



Ideal Caucasic 
Type. 



Xormally dolichocephalic 
Le., long horizontally. 

Orthognathous, index Nos. 
82 to 76. 

Rounded oft' and oval. 

1,.S00 to 1,400 cubic cen- 
timeti'es. 

Low and inconspicuous. 

Small, well-formed, close 
to the head. 

Small, with bright-red, 
moderately-thin lips. 

Long, n ar r w , high, 
straight or somewhat 
convex — tip projecting 
beyond the nostrils. 

I 2 



132 



THINGS CHIXESE. 



foreheai> 
Eye - - 

C'HIX - - 

Neck - - 
Figure - 



Hakds and Feet 
Stature - - - • 



Complexion 



Hair 



Low, receding, narrow. 

Small, aliiioml-r^hapeil, 
obli<iiie upwards and 
outwards, orbits wide 
apart, iris black. 

Very small and receding. 

Short and thick set. 

Squat, angular, heavy, 
muscular, inclining to 
obesity. 

Disproportionate!}' sinall. 

Below the average — 5 ft. 
to 5 ft. 4 inch. 

Pale-yellowish, tawnj- or 
olive, inclining to a 
leathery-brown and 
cinnamon — no red or 
ruddy tinge. 

Dull-black, long, coarse, 
stiff, and lank, cylin- 
drical in section. 



Heard- - - - 
Eyebrows - - 
Expression - - 

Temperament - 



A'"ery scanty or absent. 

Straight and scanty. 

Heavy, inanimate, mono- 
tonously uniform. 

Dull, taciturn, morose, 
lethargic, but fitfully 
vehement. 



Straight, broad below, 

fully developed. 
Large, round, straight ; 

orbits rather close set ; 

iris normallj' blue or 

grev. but ven' variable. 
Full" ' and 'slightly 

projecting. 
Long, slender, and 

shapely. 
Sj'mmetrical, slim, active, 

robust. 

Medium-sized or large. 
Medium or above the 

average — 5 ft. -l inch to 

5 ft. t| inch. 
Fair or white, inclining 

to brown and swarthy — 

normally with ruddy 

tinge. 

Long, wavy, and normallj' 
light brown, but very 
variable — glossy jet- 
black, liaxen, red, etc, 
elliptical in section. 

Full, bushy, often very 
long. 

Arched and full. 

Bright, intelligent, in- 
finitely varied. 

Energetic, restless, fiery, 
and poetic. 



An ethnological study and comparison of the inhabitants 
of different part of China would afford much interest and 
instruction. We have not been able to find any statistics on 
the subject, though we understand one or two have made 
some researches in the matter. Through the kindness of the 
Hongkong Government we have been allowed to inspect the 
books in Victoria Gaol, and we find the following was the 
Jieight of 1000, Chinese Male prisoners, (the fractions of 
inches have been omitted) : — 



4 fe 


et 6 


■i 


, !) 


4 


. 10 


4 , 


. 11 


5 . 


, 


5 


, 1 


i> 


, 2 


5 


, :^ 



inches ^ 



1 

1 

11 

17 

44 

77 

112 

172 



5 feet 



4 inches 


= 178 


5 


= i(;4 


6 


= 117 


7 ,. 


= 62 


8 .. 


= 28 


9 -, 


= 13 


10 „ 


^= 2 


11 „ 


= 1 



CHINESE PEOPLE. 133 

We discarded from our investigations all under the age 
of 21 by Cliineso reckoning, which is a year or two less than 
by English computation, but maturity is early attained in 
a hot climate. Neither does the fact that the measurements 
are those of prisoners on their admission to gaol militate 
against them being reliable as average statistics for Chinese 
in this part of China, as the majority, if not all the 
prisoners, form a very good sample of Southern Chinese. 
The great proportion of them are artisans and coolies, 
and are typical of the whole of their class ; a few of the 
better class of Chinese are also to be found amongst 
them. 

The height of 100 female prisoners was as follows ; — 



4 feet <i inches := 1 

4 „ 7 „ = 5 

i .,, >< „ = i 

4 ,, 9 ,, = i) 

4 ,, 10 ., = 11 

4 ,. II ., =14 



feet inches ^ L'7 
„ 2 ., =ia 

» -^ » = " 
."•) .. = 1 



The average height of the Chinese is said to be 5 feet 
4 inches, while the averasre for Ensrlish is 5 feet 61 inches. 

As regards their mental characteristics, much might be. 
and has been, written ; the latter largely tinctured by the 
mental media through which the various observers viewed 
their idiosyncracies. 

One of the most marked peculiarities is their wonderful 
memory in the way of study. Trained for centuries in this 
particular groove, the result has been that books are easily 
learned by heart and repeated from beginning to end without 
mistake. Their patience, perseverance, and industry are 
deserving of all praise ; no task is considered too trivial, no 
labour too arduous to engage in. Their politeness, peaceable- 
ness and dread of giving offence are often carried to an 
extreme. Their economy, credulity, lack of sincerity and 
sympathy are all characteristics on which page after page 
might be written. 



134 THINGS CHINESE. 

As has been said of the Japanese, so may it be said 
equally well of the Chinese : — 

' His very politeness may compel him to hide a disagreeable 
truth or, at the utmost to express it in very indirect language. His 
native tongue, with its elaborate impersonal forms of address and 
even of command, reflects the whole social sentiments of the people. 
It abounds in *'■■ * negations, in honorifics to the person addressed, 
in deprecatory phrases concerning self, or selfs belongings.' 

These assist the fatal want of veracity so noticeable 
amongst the Chinese, for it must be confessed that the 
obligations of truth are not so binding with them as with us. 
This trait of character is constantly exhibited in the courts 
of justice. They are, however, not worse than most Orientals 
in this respect ; in fact they are better than many. 

Having thus lightly touched upon a few of the charac- 
teristics of this wonderful, little understood, much lauded, as 
well as much decried people, we Avill ourselves retire to the 
background and present a symposium of opinions of residents, 
authors, statesmen, missionaries, travellers and others. 

'It is an abuse of terms, to say that they are a highly moral 
people * * '■■' '■■' A morality that forgets one half of the decalogue 
must be wonderfully deficient, however complete it may be in the 
other '■■" * '•' I think, however, we may affirm '"• ""' "'■' that the 
moral sense is in many particulars highly refined among them. * * '- 
Respect to parents and elders, obedience to law, chastity, kindness, 
economy, prudence, and self-possession are the never-failing themes 
for remark and illustration. * * * * * The happiness and 
general prosperity of the Chinese are so conspicuous that they merit 
a short analysis. Let us see then of what elements they are 
compounded : — 

(i) An habitual readiness to labour. (2) Frugality in the use 
of worldly goods. (3) Skill competent to enable the people 
to turn all advantages to the best account. (4) An exact 
conception of money's worth.' — (Tyadescaiii Lax). 

' In the Chinese character are elements which in due time must 
lift her [China] out of the terribly backward position into which she 
has fallen and raise her to a rank among the foremost of nations. 
Another ground of hope * * * lies in the matter-of-fact habits 
of the Chinese, their want of enthusiasm and dislike of chansre, 
Avhich are rather favourable than otherwise to their development as- 
a great community.' — (Dr. Wells Williams). 



CHINESE PEOPLE. 135 

' The mental capacities of the people are of no inferior order. 
Their administrative powers are remarkable. Sir Frederick Bruce is 
reported to have said that "Chinese statesmen were equal to any ha 
ever met in any capital in Europe." '■■■' *■■' * Certain it is, they hold 
their own with our British diplomatists. Chinese merchants cope 
successfully with our own in all departments of trade ; in fact, are 
gaining ground on them. {See Consul Medhurst's "Report on the 
Trade of Shanghai," i^/?^^ ^(w/^ [China], No. 7, 1870.) * * "■ *■- 
Their literati are equal to any intellectual task Europeans can set 
before them * * •■■ *. The common people are shrewd, pains- 
taking and indomitable ; and the more I have travelled among them 
the more have I been impressed with their mental promise, docility, 
and love of order * * * * *. The Chinese have always been 
the imperial race in the Far East ''■' "- *' *. It is true that at 
present they are in a most deplorable condition. Their old principles 
of government are disregarded; the maxims of their classics utterly 
ignored by the generality of their rulers ; rapacity and corruptions 
pervade every department of the State. * '■' -■- * Absence of 
truth and uprightness and honour, — this is a most appalling void, 
and, unfortunately, it meets one hi all classes and professions of the 
people. I do not refer to money matters, for, as a rule, they stand 
well in this respect. * * * * The Chinese are not naturally 
an anti-progressive people. They are peculiarly amenable to reason, 
have no caste, and no powerful religious bias. Their history shows 
that they have adopted every manifest improvement, which has 
presented itself, for these many centuries. * * * The truth is, 
the Chinese have all the mental, moral, and religious instincts of 
our common nature. "•" •" * * The fact that they have preceded 
us in many of the most important discoveries of modern times, such 
as the compass, gunpowder, printing, the manufacture of paper, silk, 
procelain, &c., proves their inventive genius. * * "' * They are 
peaceable and civil to strangers. — (Dr. Williamson.) 

Hei'e are a few extracts from older Avriters : — 
' Generally speaking, they have all the cunning, deceit and intrigue 
of the French, without any of their good qualities.' — Dr. Morrison. 

' Such Europeans as settle in China, and are eye-witnesses of 
what passes, are not surprised to hear that mothers kill or expose 
several of their children ; nor that parents sell their daughters for a 
trifle, nor that the empire is full of thieves ; and the spirit of avarice 
universal. They are rather surprised that greater crimes are not 
heard of during seasons of scarcity. If we deduct the desires so 
natural to the unhappy, the innocence of their habits would correspond 
well enough with their poverty and hard labour.' — Preniare. 

'The Chinese are so madly prejudiced in favour of their own 
country, manners, and maxims, that they cannot imagine anything, 
not Chinese, to deserve the least regard. — Chavagnac. 

' So unwilling are the Chinese to allow themselves to be 
surpassed, or that any other people possess that of which they cannot 
boast, that they fancy resemblances where there are none, and, after 
striving in vain to find them, they still hope that such there are, and 
that if there should happen to be none, they are of no importance, or 
surely they would have been there.'— Z>r. Mibie. 



136 THINGS CHINESE. 

'The superiority which the Chinese possess over the other 
nations of Asia is so decided as scarcely to need the institution of an 
elaborate comparison. "•■•' '■■ ""' * It may be considered as one 
proof of social advancement on the part of the Chinese, that the civil 
authority is generally superior to the military, and that letters always 
rank above arms. ''' * * The Chinese are bad political economists. 
o c- o o The advantageous features of their character, as mildness, 
• docility, industry, peaceableness ; subordination and respect for the 
aged, are accompanied by the vices of specious insincerity, falsehood, 
with mutual distrust and jealousy * i- * * 'f he superior character 
of the Chinese as colonists in regard to intelligence, industry, and 
general sobriety, must be derived from their education, and from the 
influence of something good in the national system. * * * >» 
The comparatively low estimation in which mere wealth is held, 
is a considerable moral advantage on the side of the Chinese * * * * 
Poverty is no reproach among them. * * * * The peaceful and 
prudential chai^acter of the people may be traced to the influence 
and authority of age. •■" "■'• '■' ■'• The Chinese frequently get 
the better of Europeans in a discussion by imperturbable coolness 
and gravity. * * It is the discipline to which they 

^re subject from earliest childhood, and the habit of controlling their 
ruder passions, that render crimes of violence so unfrequent among 
them. * "•■'■ '■■ '■■' Hereditary rank without merit, is of little merit to the 
possessor.' — Sir ydiJi Davis. 

' As a direct refusal to any request would betray a want of good 
breeding, every proposal finds their immediate acquiescence : they 
promise without hesitation, but generally disappoint by the invention 
of some slight pretence or plausible objection : they have no proper 
sense of the obligations of truth.' — Barrozv. 

' The Chinese * 'f- * are in general of a mild and humane 
disposition, but violent and vindictive when offended,' — Sir George 
Stainiton. 

'Genius and originality are regarded as hostile and incompatible 
elements.' — Gillespie. 

And again some extracts from later writers : — 

' Ingenuity is a gift largely bestowed upon the Chinaman ; it is 
indeed one of his most marked characteristics, — but it is ingenuity 
of that peculiar kind which works with very slender materials. 
« Almost every Chinaman is, by a kind of natural 

instinct, good both at cooking and at bargaining.' — Archdeacon Cobbold. 

' This mysterious race, which with the Anglo-Saxons and the 
Russians will divide the earth a hundred years hence. * '■' '■' Hard- 
working, frugul and orderly when their secret societies are kept under 
due control, they are admirable aud trustworthy men of business, 
while as artisans their industry is only exceeded by their skill and 
versatility.' — Sir Lepel Griffin. 



CHINESE FEOPLE. 137 

' The love of antiquity is inborn in the Chinese, they h've in the 
past. * * * * To them the past is not a mass of musty 
records filled with the suffocating odours of decay, as it appears often 
to us, but a rich treasure-house fragrant with the aroma of purest 
wisdom and noblest example. '■' * * " They are exclusive to 
the extremest degree. "' '■■■' '"'' * Conservatism has been carried to 
such an extreme that the whole nation has become fossilised. * * * * 
Closely connected with this spirit of exclusiveness is an overweening 
pride and absurd conceit in their own superiority and an unreasoning 
hatred of everything foreign. "■'■ '■■■ "•'■■ '■' Taking the people as a 
whole, their fundamental qualities of industry, stability and readiness 
to submit to authority, contain the promise of cheering results in 
the future.' — Rei'. B. C. Henry. 

' The Chinaman and the mosquito are the two great mysteries 
of creation.' — H. Norman. 

'One of the most remarkable national peculiarities of the Chinese 
is their extraordinary addiction to letters, the general prevalence of 
literary habits among the middling and higher orders, and the very 
honourable pre-eminence which from the most remote period has 
been uniyersally conceded to that class which is exclusively devoted 
to literary pursuits. '■' '' '" * I have left the country with the 
conviction that the Chinese nation, as a whole, is a much less vicious 
one than, as a consequence of opinions formed from a limited and 
unfair field of observation, it has been customary to represent it ; 
further, that the lower orders of the people generally are better 
conducted, more sober and industrious, and, taken altogether, 
intellectually superior to the corresponding class of our own 
countrymen.' — Dr. Rcnnic. 

'I find here a steady adherence to the traditions of the past, a 
sober devotion to the calls arising in the various relations of lite, an 
absence of shiftlessness, an honest and, at least, somewhat earnest 
grappling with the necessities and difficulties which beset men in 
their humbler stages of progress, a capacity to moralise withal, 
and an enduring sense of right and wrong. These all form what 
must be considered an essentially satisfactory basis and groundwork 
of national character. Among the people there is practical sense, 
among the gentry, scholarly instincts, the desire for advancement, the 
disposition to work for it with earnestness and constancy. Amongst 
the rulers, a sense of dignity, breadth of view, considering their 
information, and patriotic feeling. Who will say that such a 
people have not a future more wonderful even than their past.' — 
G. F. Seward. 

' The moral character of the Chinese is a book written in strange 
letters, which are more complex and difficult for one of another race, 
religion, and language to decipher than their own singularly com- 
pounded word-symbols. In the same individuals, virtues and vices, 
apparently incompatible, are placed side by side. Meekness, 
gentleness, docility, industry, contentment, cheerfulness, obedience 
to superiors, dutifulness to parents, and reverence for the aged, are in 
one and the same person, the companions of insincerity, lying, 
flattery, treachery, cruelty, jealousy, ingratitude, avarice, and distrust 



138 THINGS CHINESE. 

of others. The Chinese are a weak and timid people, and in 
consequence, like all similarly constituted races, they seek a natural 
refuge in deceit and fraud. But examples of moral inconsistency are 
by no means confined to the Chinese, and I fear that sometimes too 
much emphasis is laid on the dark side of their character, * * "" '* 
as if it had no parallel amongst more enlightened nations. Were 
a native of the empire with a view of acquiring a thorough knowledge 
of the English people, to make himself familiar with the records of 
our police and other law courts, the transactions that take place in 
what we call the "commercial world," and the scandals of what we 
term "society," he would probably give his countrymen at home a 
very one-sided and depreciatory account of this nation.' — Archdeacon 
Gray. 

I find the Chinese most polite. * ■■■■ * '- The only thing 
no man can accuse the Chinese of is love of change. — Mrs. Gray, 

'The earnest simplicity and seriousness with which an amiable 
and lettered man in China will sit and propound the most prepos- 
terous and fantastic theories that ever entered a human brain, and 
the profound unconsciousness he shows of the nonsense he is talking, 
affect one very curiously. ■•' * * * There are few things in which 
the Chinese do not claim pre-eminence, and it is this habit of self- 
complacency which renders them so very much averse to being 
enlightened on those points on which they habitually are found 
wanting. The belief in their own infallibility cannot but be a standing 
obstacle to the progress of the people in all departments where it 
prevails, and the difHculty of getting a Chinaman to acknowledge that 
he is beaten in an argument is but another phase of the same 
phenomenon. It is a sufficient answer, for him, that, however useless 
or hurtful a given practice may be, it is the " custom " of the country ; 
and the belief that all the customs which have descended from 
generation to generation are, for that very reason, incapable of 
improvement, renders him a very hopeless subject to deal with 
<! o s c- There are few things more amusing, and at the same 
time more exasperating, to a European than the utter confusion of 
thought which characterises the Chinese as a race. * * ''■'' There 
seems a looseness of reasoning ; a want of consecutiveness, in the 
mental process of the Chinese which argues an inherent defect in 
their constitutions.' — Balfour^ 

John Chinaman is a most temperate creature. * * '■' *' 
During the whole course of my many years residence in the 
country, I do not remember to have seen a dozen instances 
of actual di'unkenness. * * ■■' They are a sociable people 

amongst themselves, and * '■■ * their courtesies are of a most 
laboured and punctilious character. * * * The Chinese are 

essentially a reading people. * '•'' *'■* The Chinese have not, it is 

true, that delicate perception of what the claims of truth and good faith 
demand, which is so highly esteemed among us westerners, but they 
know and prize both characteristics, and practical illustrations thereof 
are constantly observable in their relations one with another, and 
with foreigners. '^ * * "- Honesty * * * is by no means a 
rare virtue with the Chinese. * * * * As regards the question 
of courage, again it must be admitted that the Chinese possess more 
of the quality than they have hitherto had credit for. * '■'' '■' 



CLAN. 139 

Both kindliness and cruelty, gentleness and ferocity, have each its 
place in the Chinese character, and the sway which either emotion 
has upon their minds depends very much upon the associations by 
which they are for the moment surrounded. When in their own 
quiet homes, pursuing undisturbed the avocations to which they have 
been accustomed, there are no more harmless, well-intentioned, and 
orderly people. They actually appear to maintain order as if by 
common consent, independent of all surveillance or interference on 
the part of the executive. But let them be brought into contact with 
bloodshed and rapine, or let them be roused by oppression or fana- 
ticism, and all that is evil in their disposition will at once assert 
itself, inciting them to the most fiendish and atrocious acts of which 
human nature has been found capable. * * * * There is no 
more intelligent and manageable creature than the Chinaman, as 
long as he is treated with justice and firmness, and his prejudices are, 
to a reasonable extent, humoured.' — Sir Walter Medhurst. 

' There exist no more honourable, law abiding and industrious 
citizens than the Chinese.' — Earl of Kiiitore. 

Here are opinions then as diverse as possible. What 

more pat than the following: — 'The Chinese must be a 

strange people from the varying accounts which are given of 

them by different observers. They are over estimated in some 

things and undervalued in others, misunderstood in most.' — 

What is the truth? We believe it to consist in a true mean. 

If a man or woman will view this people with a mental 

calmness, not on the one hand carried away with too great 

an enthusiasm — a fault easily committed, owing to the 

wonderful antiquity and many good points in their character 

— and on the other hand, if prejudice is resolutely banished, 

these good points will be seen, while their failings will also 

^be noticed. 

(7Z(^i\^.— This division of the people in China is 
analogous to that of the Scotch clan in many respects, and 
is productive of feud and disaster to themselves and others 
sometimes, as well as of protection at other times to those 
belonging to the same clan, as a few generations ago was 
the case among the Highland clans of Scotland. The 
nucleus round which the clan gathers is the ancestral temple 
and worship; here are the head-quarters for all who are 
descendants of a remote ancestor. Genealogies are kept, 
often Avith the greatest care, in which are noted all the 
migrations of the family; and so particular are the Chinese 



140 THINGS CHINESE. 

with regard to this point, that on the tombstones, in some 
places, are put the numbers of the generations since the 
family came to that country side. 

In many villages all belong to one clan, just as in the 
Highlands of Scotland one part of the country will be found 
almost entirely peopled by one clan alone. As in China the 
unit of the population or nation is not the individual, but the 
family, it may be easily understood of what paramount im- 
portance the clan is ; and it is one of the greatest disgraces 
possible for a man to be disowned or put out of the clan, 
even if it be only temporarily. It is worse, of course, to be 
punished for a generation, and worst of all if the punishment 
is for ever, that is to say, if his branch of the family is 
excluded from the clan for ever. 

Disputes often take place between members of different 
clans, and lead to quarrels, reprisals, and fights, into which 
the whole clan is dragged; and, eventually, the soldiery, 
after perhaps some lives have been lost on both sides, are 
sent to put a stop to the internecine strife; in fact these 
petty wars are waged so fiercely, that in some instances 
they approach the vindictiveness displayed in the Italian 
vendetta. 

It should, however, be observed that the system of clans 
is more marked in the South of China, and most especially 
so in the Kwang-tung and Kwang-si provinces. 

The secret societies, especially in the Straits Settlements,. 
take tlieir rise in the clan system to a great extent. 

Books recommenfh'd. — Two articles on the comparative history of ekius 

'by Rev. Hilderic Friend, in the ' Chinese Recorder and Missionarj' Jonrnal," 

- entitled ' Tguiuj txuh cM lai I'tlt,^ Vol. IX, Nos. 4 and 5. Williams's ' Middle 

Kingdom,' Vol. I., p. 482 et seq. Also see ' Chinese Repository,' Vol. 4, p. 411. 

CLIMATE. — In a land of such vast dimensions, it may 
readily be understood that the climate varies with each part 
of the country, and almost any variety of climate may be 
found in different parts of China. The extremes of cold and 
heat are not only found in the extremes of the North and 
■ South, but in the North are even found together; for China, 
like the eastern sea-board of the Northern States of America, 



CLIMATE. 14 F 

has a wintei- in the North approaching- an arctic one for 
severity, while the summer heat is tropic in its intensity, even 
greater for a short period than it is in many parts far south. 

In some places the atmosphere is saturated with mois- 
tnre during a large part of the year, while in other regions, 
except in the rainy season, the air is dry and clear. 

The climate at Newchwang is more moderate than at 
some of the ports further down the coast. It is said 
that both Chefoo and Japan 'have a much higher average 
temperature * * *; the thermometer rarely goes above 
88° and the nights are always cool : often chilly.' The 
climate of Chefoo has been described as ' scarcely different- 
from that of New York, Boston, or Edinburgh." 

The extremes of range in Peking are 104° and zero 
Fahrenheit. The rainfall is generally lower than 16 inches in 
the year, but little snow falls, and it does not remain on the 
ground more than a few days, the rivers are locked in ice for 
three months. As the heat increases, sand and dust is blown 
about with great force, forming dust-storms. September 
and October are the two most delightful months at Peking. 

Of Ningpo it has been said that the winters may be 
compared to the winters in Paris, and the summers for a 
short season, to those of Calcutta. The climate is very damp^ 
the ground being marshy, and the extremes are greater than 
at Shanghai. The range of the thermometer is from 24° to 
107°, and a fall or rise of 20° in two hours is not unusual. 

In Shanghai the great heat, while it lasts, is very trying^ 
but fortunately it is not of long duration. 

The riverine ports are very hot in summer : Kiukiang 
gets the name of being 'the hottest place in all China,' the 
heat in the month of August there is dreaded, for there is 
' a succession of cloudless and intensely hot and oppressive 
weather.' At the end of July, 1892, the thermometer was at- 
102° in the shade. It is also very hot in Nanking in July 
and August. These hot dog-days last for about 30 days, 
but, after they are over, the nights get cooler. As an^ 



142 TIIIAGS CHINESE. 

instance of the degree of heat experienced at such times, 
we may mention that at the end of July, 1892, the 
thermometer kept pretty regular at 96^. 

Towards the end of July, 1892, the thermometer, at 
Hankow, at midnight, registered 97°. 

Of the West of China a recent writer says : 

' Rains are frequent, and heavy clouds cover the heavens three- 
fourths of the year ; and, in absence of clouds, a smoky mist veils the 
earth from the piercing rays of the sun. The climate is equable, and 
even the summer, although long and severely hot in July and August, 
is modified by frequent showers. ■■'" * The winters are very mild : 
while frost is seldom seen, and snow is almost unknown, except upon 
the mountains. Experience shows the climate to be fairly ' healthy, 
^and no more trying than that of Central China.' 

The climate of Amoy has been described as ' delightful.' 

But the word ' delightful ' must be taken as comparing it 

with the climate of some other parts of China less fortunately 

situated. The thermometer ranges from 40° to 96°. The 

author spent three months in that port in the summer of 

1889, and experienced what the temperature was at 93° for 

a day or two ; the heat was intense, but fortunately it was 

a dry heat. This dry heat in Amoy is generally moderated 

by a fresh sea-breeze which springs up nearly every day in 

the course of the forenoon and dies down in the evening. 

The heat during the night is very great, until the sea-breeze 

rising with the tide slighty cools the atmosphere. 

At Swatow the heat is great in summer, ranging nearly 
as high as at Amoy. The author also experienced a few days 
of it during June, 1892, when the thermometer was 
between 90° and 92|^°; but, as in Amoy, sea breezes spring up 
and make the heat more bearable, while at Double Island, at 
the entrance to the bay on which Swatow is situated, the 
evenings are cool in summer, though the days are hot. 

The heat at the three cities of Hongkong, Canton, and 
Macao, is of long continuance, but not of so excessive a 
character as further up the coast, Avhere its duration is 
shorter. In Canton, the thermometer ranges from about 40° 
or 50° to 88° or thereabouts. It rarely rises above or falls 
below. The sea air moderates the climate at Macao and 



CLIMATE. 14-3 

Hongkong. The rainfall of the latter place is greater than 
at Macao and Canton, and occasionally attains the extra- 
ordinary figure of 30 inches in 24' hours. The annual mean 
for 21 years being over 86 inches ; for 1891, it was very 
abundant, the total for the twelve months being 117'30. 
Drought occurs in some seasons and rain does not fall for 
months to any appreciable extent. The climate in Hong- 
kong in summer is often of a hot muggy nature, and while 
it lasts, harder to bear than a dry heat of even higher 
temperature. In the mountain-sheltered town, and on the 
lower levels, the thermometer will rarely rise higher than 
88° and 89°, though it very occasionally registers, on two 
or three days, 93° in the hottest part of Queen's Road, while 
on the Peak levels, free to the sea-breezes, and cooled by the 
high elevation of from 1,500 to 1,800 feet, the mercury falls 
from 4 to 10 degrees lower according to the season of the 
year, the greatest different between the two levels being in 
summer. These higher levels are, however, subject to 
mountain mist and fog. Fogs rarely visit Macao. The 
winter months in these three ports form the most delightful 
season of all the year, especially is this the case in October, 
November, and December, and even in January. Clear cool 
weather, with Italian skies, provides the beau ideal of 
existence. The Peak climate is said to be even finer than 
that of Chefoo — the sanitarium for foreign residents in the 
North of China. 

The climate of China, especially in the North, is also 
said to have moderated considerably from what it was some 
centuries or thousands of years ago. On the other hand, the 
reckless denudation of the hills of wood and forest, by the 
inhabitants, has doubtless had a considerable effect in 
increasing the dryness and parched aspect of everything 
during certain seasons of the year in China. It has been 
noticed that, in Hongkong, since extensive tree-planting has 
been carried on, the summers appear to be somewhat cooler. 

The mere range of the thermometer does not form a fair 
•criterion in this land of the heat, as it affects the human 



144 THINGS CHINESE. 

frame. Humidity and other considerations have to bo taken 
into account. 

In the South of China the climate seems adapted^ 
as a rule, for children of foreign parents up to the age 
of eight or ten, but after that they are inclined to shoot 
lip like hot-house plants, and require a more bracing air. 
The climate in China gets the blame of much that should be 
laid to indiscretions in diet, and careless exposure to the sun, 
or neglect of a fair share of exercise. If all these points are 
carefully attended to, a man or woman may, and often does, 
with of course some exceptions, enjoy very good health. 
Some constitutions appear unable to stand the climate, while 
occasionally others thrive better than in their own lands. 

The Chinese, as a race, are physically weaker than the 
English, but this should not all be laid to the account of 
the climate ; insanitary surroundings, ignorance of the laws 
of health, no Sunday rest, and other causes also having a 
share in it. 

CONFUCIUS AND CONFUCIANISM.— One feels a 
certain amount of difficulty in approaching such a vast subject, 
for ConfuciaiTtism is so entwined and blended with all that 
concerns China, that it is hard to know where to begin or 
where to leave off. We will simply preface our account by 
saying that Confucianism is a system of philosophy and 
ceremonial observances to which its founder and followers 
ascribe the highest possibilities, if carried out rigidly and 
faithfully to every minute jot and tittle. Its originator was 
par excellence the sage of China. 

Confucius's father ' was a military officer eminent for his 
commanding stature, his great bravery, and immense strength.' 
The birth of the sage has been surrounded by mythical 
legends. ' From his childhood he showed ritualistic ten- 
dencies,' and ' delighted to play at the arrangement of 
sacrificial vessels and at postures of ceremony.' He ' bent his 
mind to learning.' He married young, his experience of the 
married state not being a happy one, nor did he appear to 



CONFUCIUS AND CONFUCIANISM. 145 

bestow much affection on his son. Confucius early took 
public service in the state, holding different offices at different 
times, such as Keeper of the Stores of Grain, Guardian of 
the Public Fields and Lands, Magistrate, Assistant Super- 
intendent of Works, and Minister of Crime ; and applied his 
principles to the government with the most signal success. 

These appointments were not all held in succession, but 
were interspersed and followed by years spent in imparting 
instruction to disciples (at one time as many as 3,000), in 
gaining knowledge himself, and in the compilation and editing 
of books, as well as in journeyings amongst the different petty 
states into which the China of that time was divided, in the 
hope that the rulers would give him the opportunity of 
putting his principles of government to the test, when, such 
confidence had he in them, that he was convinced that, instead 
of anarchy and confusion, peace and harmony would reign 
supreme. He died, feeling that he was unappreciated, at tlie 
age of seventy-two. His disciples had the highest admiration 
for him, and exhausted attributes in the expression of it. 

The best title which has ever been bestowed on hia), is 
that of 'The Throneless King.' 

' Probably no man has been so contemned during his life-time, 
and at the same time so worshipped by posterity, as Confucius. In 
both extremes there has been some exaggeration. His standard of 
morality was high, and his doctrines were pure. Had he, therefore, 
had an opportunity of exercising authority, it could but have resulted 
in good to an age, when the notions of right and wrong were strangely 
confused, and when both public and private morality were at the 
lowest ebb. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand the 
secret of the extraordinary influence he has gained over posterity, and 
the more the problem is studied the more incomprehensible does it 
become,' when viewed from a European standpoint. 'His system of 
philosophy is by no means complete, and it lacks life (if we may 
venture to say so), in face of the fact that it has supplied the guiding 
principles, which have actuated the performance of all that is great 
and noble in the life of China for more than twenty centuries.' 

It is impossible in the short i space of this article to 
give a. digest of the doctrines of the sage. We will . content 
ourselves with giving a summary of the essential points as 

K 



146 THINGS CHINESE. 

adapted to the requirements of modern every-day Chinese 
life by the great Emperor K'ang Hi : — 

'i. Esteem most highly filial piety and brotherly submission, 
in order to give due prominence to the social relations. 

2. Behave with generosity to the branches of your kindred, in 
order to illustrate harmony and benignity. 

3. Cultivate peace and concord in your neighbourhoods, in 
order to prevent quarrels and litigations. 

4. Recognise the importance of husbandry and the culture df 
cne mulberry-tree, in order to ensure sufficiency of clothing and food. 

5. Show that you prize moderation and economy, in order to 
prevent the lavish waste of your means. 

6. Make much of the coHeges and seminaries, in order to 
make correct the practice of the scholars. 

7. Discountenance and banish strange doctrines, in order to 
exalt the correct doctrine. 

8. Describe and explain the laws, in order to warn the ignorant 
and obstinate. 

9. Exhibit clearly propriety and yielding courtesy, in order to 
make manners and customs good. 

10. Labour diligently at your proper callings, in order to give 
settlement to the aims of the people. 

1 1. Instruct sons and younger brothers, in order to prevent them 
from doing what is wrong. 

12. Put a stop to false accusations, in order to protect the 
honest and the good. 

13. Warn against sheltering deserters, in order to avoid being 
involved in their punishments. 

14. Promptly and fully pay your taxes, in order to avoid the 
urgent requisition of your quota. 

15. Combine in hundreds and tithings, in order to put an end 
to thefts and robbery. 

16. Study to remove resentments and angry feelings, in order to 
show the importance due 10 the person and life.' 

These, with commentaries, are read to the people on the 
1st and 15th of the month. 

Divine honours are paid to the sage by the Emperor, 
twice a year, and by every school-boy throughout the length 
and breadth of the land. 

Confucius is generally represented in the temples to him 
by a wooden tablet with his name and titles on it, but in 
some cases there is an image of him. There is a temple in 
every district city and one in every departmental city, 



CORMORANT FISHING. 147 

•consequently there are three in Canton : in two of these there 

•is a tablet, in. the third, an image. In the district city of 

Kit Yong, in the Ch'ao Chau Department, the author saw 

both an image and a tablet. The image represents the sage 

as black as a negro, for he is described as being of a swarthy 

complexion. Besides Confucius himself, his disciples, to the 

extent of some hundred and seventy, are also honoured by 

images or tablets in the immediate presence of ' The Perfect 

Sage ' himself, or in the precincts of the same temple that 

'lie occupies, and they are likewise worshipped. 

Books recommended. — ' Confucianism and Taouism,' by Professor 
Douglas. Professor Leg-ge's ' Eeligions of China.' The same author's 
' Imperial Confucianism,' and his master-work, ' The Chinese Classics.' 
'The three Religions of China,' by Uu Bose. Faber's 'Digest of the 
Doctrines of Confucius,' and a review of the latter in the ' China Review.' 
Tol. 1, page 260. ' Confucius, The Great Teacher.' by Major- General 
'G. G. Alexander. 'A Guide to the Tablets in a Temple of Confucius." 
by T. Watters'. 

CORMORANT FISIimC—The Chinese have long 

used cormorants for fishing purposes; for the journal of the 

friar Odoric (A.D. 1286-1331) mentions this strange method 

■of fishing, and it is largely carried on at the present d^y 

in some parts of China. To show the admirable adaptation 

of this bird for the pursuit, we quote from a lengthy article 

in 'The Encyclopoedia Americana.' 

'The cormorant is most admirably adapted for swimming, 
o c- « having the great toe united to the others by a common 
membrane, * * * yet they are among the very few web-footed 
birds capable of perching on the branches of trees, which they do 
with great ease and security.' Cormorants, of which there are quite 
a number of species distributed over different parts of the world, 
are closely alUed to the pelicans in conformation and habits. 
They ' are very voracious feeders. * * * * They dive with great 
force, and swim under water with such celerity, that few fish can 
•escape them. ''■' * * Should a cormorant seize a fish in any other 
way than by the head, he rises to the surface and, tossing the fish 
.into the air, adroitly catches it head foremost as it falls, so that the 
fins, being properly laid against the fish's sides, cause no injury to 
the throat of the bird.' 

Their use is not confined to one part of the country. 

Amongst other places where they may be found at work 

may be mentioned the North River above Canton, the 

.river above Ch'ao-Chau-fii and the river above Foochow. 

Though we have seen a small catamaran-like boat, witk 

K 2 



148 THINGS CHINESE. 

several cormorants on it, in one of our trips into the interior^ 

Ave have not actually seen them employed; we therefore copy 

at length from Miss Gordon-Cumming's •' Travels in China ' 

as to their fishing : — 

'The simplest foi-m of fishery i.s when a poor fisherman has 
constructed for laimself a raft consisting only of from four to eight bamboos 
lashed together. On this he sits ])oised (crowned with a large straw hat), 
and before him are perched half-a-doze7i of these odd nncannj'-looking 
black birds waiting his command. The cage in which they live and the 
basket in which he stores his fish complete his slender stock-in-trade. 
The marvel is how he contrives to avoid overturning his frail raft. Some- 
times several fishers form partnership, and start co-operative business. 
They invest in a shallow punt, and a regiment of perhaps twenty or morft- 
of these solenm sombre birds sit on perches at either end of the punt, each 
having a hempen cord fastened round the throat just below the pouch, to- 
prevent its swallowing any fish it may catch. Then, at a given signal, alL 
the cormorants glide into the water, apparently well aware of the 
disadvantage of scaring their prey. 

Their movements below the surface are very swift and graceful as- 
tliej'- dart in pursuit of a fish or an eel, and giving it a nip with their- 
strong hooked beak, swallow it, and continue hunting. Sometimes the^" 
do not return to the surface till they have secured several fish, and their 
capacious pouch is quite distended, and sometimes the tail of a fish pro- 
trudes from their gaping bill. Then they return to the surface, and at the 
bidding of their keepers disgorge their prej% one bj^ one, till the pouch is 
cmiity, when they again receive the signal to dive, and resume their pursuit. 

Some birds are far more expert than others, and rarely fail to secure 
their prize, but sometimes they catch a fish, or more often an eel, so 
awkwardly that they cannot contrive to swallow it, and in the effort to 
arrange this difficulty, the victim manages to escape. If one bird catches 
a large and troublesome fish, two or three of its friends occasionally go 
to the aid of their comrade, and help him to despatch it. Such brotherly 
kindness is, however, b}' no means invariable, and sometimes, when a 
foolish young bird has captured a fish, the old hands pursue and rob him of 
his prize. At other times a bird fails in its trick, and after staying under 
water for a ver}' long period, comes up quite crestfallen without a fish. 

When the birds are tired the strap is removed from their throat and 
the}' are rewarded with a share of the fish, which they catch as it is throwai 
to them. It is reckoned a good day's fishing if eighteen or twenty 
cormorants capture a dollar's worth of fish ; and as so many birds represent 
about half-a-dozen owners, it is evidently not a verj' lucrative business. 

The birds are quite domestic, having all been reared in captivity.. 
Curiously enough, the mothers are so careless that they cannot be trusted 
to rear their own j'oung ; and furthermore, the said yoitng are so sensitive 
to cold weather that only the four or five eggs laid in early spring are 
considered worth hatching, as onlj' these can be reared in the warm 
summer. They are taken from the cormorant and given to a hen, who 
apparently must be colour-blind, as she calmly accepts these green eggs in. 
lieu of her own. She is not, however, subjected to the misery of seeing 
her nurslings take to the water, as they are at once removed from her care, 
when, after a month's incubation, the poor little fledgelings make their 
appearance. They are then transferred to baskets which are kept in a 
warm corner : the young birds being buried ' in cotton wool and fed with. 
I^ellets of raw fish and bean-curd. 



COSMETICS. 149 

When they are two months ohl their nursery days are over, and the 
sorrows of education must begin. They are therefore offered for sale, a, 
female bird being valued at from 3.y. to hs.. and a male bird at double the 
price. This difl'erence is due to the superior strength of the latter, which 
enables it to cajiture larger tish. Thenceforth the professional trainer takes 
them in hand ; and fastening a string to one leg, he drives them into the 
water and throws small live fishes, which they are expected to catch. They 
are taught to t>'o and return subject to different calls on a whistle, obedience 
being enforced bj'^ the persuasive strokes of a bamboo — the great educational 
factor in China 1 When thoroughly trained, a male bird is valued at from 
205. to 30*., and its fishing career is expected to continue for five years, 
.after which it will probably become old and sulky.' 

Cormorant fishing was practiced in both France and 
Enghand in the seventeenth century ; and an attempt to 
revive it has lately been made in England. 

COSMETICS.— "These are largely used by the Chinese, 
no girl or woman above the very menial classes being 
considered as dressed without a plentiful application of 
rouge to the lips and patches of it on the cheeks. A sign, 
■even if others were wanting, that the present race of Chinese 
have descended to the warmer regions of the south of China 
from a climate where rosy cheeks and ruby lips were natural. 
No art is dispUiyed in applying the rouge, nor is concealment 
ever dreamt of At the first glance, a Chinese lady is seen to 
be painted by the coarse big daub on each side of her face. 
On festivals and gala occasions it is even more freely applied. 
White powder is also used to render their dark faces more 
fair. The lavish use of cosmetics spoils whatever complexion 
a. Chinese lady may possess. 

COTTON. — The introduction of cotton as a textile plant 
into China is an interesting subject. It has been supposed 
that the ancient Shii King (The Book of History) mentions 
■cotton, but ' the Aveight of proof is, however, strongly 
adverse to this view,' There is no doubt that a historical 
notice^ about A.D. 500, * refers to cotton robes,' and in A.D. 
670 we find it bearing the name of Kih-pei, derived from 
the Sanscrit Karpasi. This early knowledge of cotton 
amongst the Chinese was confined, it would thus appear, to 
what was brought into the empire as tribute, for it was not 
until the Sung dynasty that the plant was grown in China. 



150 THINGS CHINESE. 

' Early in the eleventh century the plant was brought over and 
cultivated in the north-western provinces by persons from Khoten. 

* " ■■'■ The opposition to cotton cultivation on the part of silk 
and hemp growers was so persistent that the plant had not fairly 
won its way into favour until the Yuen dynasty. The great cotton 
region is the basin of the Yangtsz Kiang, where the white and yellow 
varieties grow side by side. The manure used is mud taken from the- 
canals and spread with ashes over the ploughed fields, in which seeds 
are sown about the 20th of April. The seeds are planted, after 
sprouting, five or six in a hole, being rubbed with ashes as they are put 
in, and weeded out if necessary. After the winter crops have been 
gathered, cotton-fields are easily made ready for the shoots, which, 
while growing, are carefully tended, thinned, hoed, and weeded until 
the flowers begin to appear about August. As the pods begin to ripen- 
and burst, the cultivator collects them before they fall, to clean the 
cotton of seed and husks. The weather is carefully watched, for a 
day summer or a wet autumn are alike unpropitious, and as the pods 
are ripening from August to October, it is not uncommon for the crop 
to be partially lost. The seeds are separated by a vvheel turning two 
rollers, and the cotton sold by each farmer to merchants in the towns. 
Some he keeps for weaving at home ; spinning-wheels and looms, 
being common articles of furniture in the houses of the peasantry. 
Cotton is cultivated in every province, and most of it is used where it 
grows. Around Peking the plant is hardly a foot high ; the bolls are- 
cleaned for wadding to a great extent, while the woody stalks 
supply fuel to the poor. Minute directions are given in Su's 
' Encyclopaedia of Agriculture ' respecting the cultivation of this plant, 
whose total crop clothes the millions of the empire.' 

' The durable cotton cloth made in the central provinces called 
Nankeefihy foreigners, because Nanking is famous for its manufacture, 
is the chief product of Chineselooms. It is now seldom sent out of the- 
country, and the natives are even taking to the foreign fabric in its. 
stead. Cotton seed in that part of China is sown early in June, about 
eighty pounds to an acre ; in a good year the produce is about two 
thousand pounds, diminishing to one half in poor seasons. It is manured 
with liquid bean-cake, often hoed and the bolls gathered in October, 
usually by each family in its own plot. The seeds are separated by 
passing the pods between an iron and wooden roller on a frame, which 
presses out the seeds and does not break them. The clean cotton is 
then bowed ready for spinning, and the cloth is woven in simple 
looms by the people who are to wear it after it is dyed blue. The- 
looms used in weaving cotton vary from twelve to sixteen inches in 
width ; they are simple in their construction ; no figures are woven, 
in cotton fabrics, nor have the Chinese learned to print them as 
chintz or calico. '■■' * '■■' * The only attempt to estimate the- 
product has been in Kiangnan, at 28,500 tons, a figure below rather 
than above the truth.' 

The cotton plant is grown all over China at the present 
day. It has been thought that it may have been introduced 

• by foreigners trading with the Chinese ' ' by way of the- 
southern sea ' ' as well as by the Mongol usurpers coming ia 



COTTON. 151 

from the north-west/ for, though first cultivated during the 
Sung dynasty, it was only under the Mongols that it was 
grown to any extent. One writer describes the spread of 
the cotton plant in China as being very rapid on account of 
its being able to stand the northern winters and the southern 
mildness of climate. So common has it become now that it 
is the staple article for dress in China, especially amongst the 
poorer classes, as it can be more cheaply made than silks. 
Not content with their own native produced article, cotton 
and cotton goods form the largest import into China, and 
an import which is continually increasing in value. In 1892 
it was represented in value by 53,290,200 taels, grey and 
white shirtings from England accounting alone for 15,693,081 
taels of that amount. (See Article on Trade.) The Indian 
yarn thus imported ' is suited to make coarse fabrics 
which are strong and wear well.' ' China greatly values 
cheapness and if she procure these [Indian yarns] she will 
supply her own coarse textile fabrics for the time by the 
cottage loom system and suit her own taste in strength and 
quality.' But a new phase has recently come over the 
cotton industry, and mills fitted with the latest appliances for 
tlie manufacture are now springing up at Shanghai and a few 
other important centres of trade and industry in China; this 
is accompanied by an increased cultivation of cotton. It 
would seem that the Indian yarn is better suited for manufac- 
ture than the native. 

'Mr. Tratman referring to the manufactures of the Hupeh 
cotton mill at Wuchang says: — "These goods have had a fair trial 
throughout these provinces during the past few years, but they are 
not appreciated to anything like the same extent as similar goods of 
foreign manufacture. The yarn is short and difficult to work with 
the primitive apphances in use here. The shirtings have not the 
same toughness as even the most common kind of English goods and 
they tear very easily. This inferiority of the Hupeh goods is not, 
I am told, to be in any way attributed to the manufacture, but simply 
to the fact that the cotton used is much below the standard of Indian, 
cotton." ' 

Though of short staple, Chinese cotton ' is suitable for 
mixing with other qualities.' The Hon. T. H. Whitehead,. 



152 THINGS CHINESE. 

from whom we have qiioted the last sentence, in his speech 

at the Royal Colonial Institute in 1895, proceeds to say : — 

'In the Shanghai River in December 1893, there were at one 
time no less than 5 ocean going steamers taking in cargoes of China- 
grown cotton for transportation to Japan, there to be converted by 
Japanese hands into yarn and cotton.' ' The Chinese have millions 
of acres of land admirably adapted to the cultivation of cotton.' 

The starting of these cotton mills, to Avhich we have 
already referred, will obviate the necessity of carrying the 
cotton to Japan and then bringing the yarn back to 
China, since the conversion of it into yarn can be carried 
out on the spot. Shanghai, being the centre of the cotton 
growing districts, bids fair, if the industry is not throttled 
by Chinese officialdom and officialism, to 'be one of the 
greatest manufacturing centres in the world ' It has already 
proved a commercial success in Shanghai, and companies 
for starting mills at other places are every now and then 
being promoted; sometime ago it was announced that a 
* weaving enterprise on a somewhat large scale ' would 
' shortly be inaugurated in Honam, Canton.' There are now 
(1898) fifteen mills running in Shanghai and at outports. 

In the last-mentioned city, there are over 1,000 em- 
ployed in the native primitive method of weaving cotton- 
cloth. It takes ;ibout twelve days to make one piece of 
1 1 chdng in length (about 43 yards), and the pay for this is 
3S0 cash, the masters providing board and lodging for the 
workmen but charging them for it. The cotton is carded 
by means of a large bow several feet in length which is 
held by, or fastened to the body of, the workman, who 
vibrates the string amidst the cotton, thus producing a very 
light floss. 

The cotton tree is not to be confounded with the cotton 
plant. It is a large splendid tree growing to a considerable 
size with immense limbs branching out from it. and in 
spring it has a large red flower. A Avhite silky down covers 
the seeds, whence its name. This cotton is ' equally good 
looking ' as the true cotton, its staple is too short to be woven 
into cloth ; consequently it is only used to stuff cushions, &c. 



CREMATION. 153 

A rough cloth is capable of being produced from it, so 
it is said, but this statement is doubtful. 

Boohs recommended. — Williams's 'Middle Kingdom.' Dr. Porter 
Smith's 'Chinese Materia Medica and Natural History,' and Dr. Edkins 
' Modern China.' 

CREMATION. — Cremation is opposed to the principles 
of the Chinese. They believe that unless the whole body 
goes intact into the next world, it will not be in a perfect 
condition in a future state of existence. It is only Buddhist 
monks whose bodies are thus disposed of at the present day. 
It was. however, a common practice, in some parts of China, 
at all events, during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for 
Marco Polo says : * The people have paper-money, and are 
idolaters and burn their dead.' Ibn Batuta also says: — 'The 
Chinese are all infidels: they worship images, and burn their 
dead just like the Hindoos.' A memorial was presented 
against it in A. D. 1261 to the Emperor 'praying that the 
erection of cremation furnaces might thenceforth be prohi- 
bited.' It is a great pity that the practice was not continued, 
as the neighbourhood of a Chinese city is converted into a 
vast necropolis, to say nothing of solitary graves scattered 
over the hills and mountains, even at a distance from human 
habitations. There is no intramural burial. No places of 
Avorship are turned into charnel houses to the detriment of 
future living worshippers as with us, but an equally, or even 
more, reprehensible custom is in vogue of preserving the 
coffin in the house or some convenient temple for weeks, 
months, and years, until either a favourable site with propi- 
tious inflnences is found, or until the family can afford the 
expenses of a funeral befitting their social position. This is 
in the South; in the central portions of China, as at Shang- 
hai, one sees coffins standing even in the corners or centres 
of fields All these insanitary customs would have been done 
away with had the more scientific and health-preserving 
practice of cremation been allowed to continue. The Man- 
tsz aborigines in Western Sz-chuen cremate their dead. The 
•bodies are placed in a sitting position and bound with cords. 



154 THINGS CHINESE. 

The funeral pyre is built, and after the body is burned the- 
ashes and unburned wood are buried on the spot. 

Archdeacon Gray thus describes a cremation at Honam 
Temple : — 

' As I entered the inner gates my attention was directed to an 
apartment, the doors of which were crowded by a number of priests 
arrayed in sackcloth, and wearing white bandages round their 
foreheads. The corpse, attired in a cowl, and with the hands fixed 
in the attitude of prayer, was placed in a bamboo-chair in a sitting 
posture, and carried to the pyre by six secular monks. All the monks, 
were in attendance, and walked two abreast, immediately behind 
the remains of the departed friar. As the long procession advanced, 
the walls of the monastery echoed with the chanting of prayers and. 
the tinkling of cymbals. When the bearers reached the pyre, they 
placed the chair containing the corpse upon it, and the fagots were- 
then kindled by the chief priest. Whilst the body was enveloped in 
flames, the mourners prostrated themselves upon the ground in 
obeisance to the ashes of one with whom they had been accustomed 
to join in prayer and praise. When the fire had burned itself out, 
the attendants collected the charred bones and placed them in a 
cinerary urn, which was then deposited in a small shrine within the 
precincts of the monastery. The cinerary urns remain in this shrine- 
until the ninth day of the ninth month, when the ashes which they 
contain are emptied into bags of red cloth, which are then sewn and. 
thrown into a large ossuary, or species of monastery mausoleum. 
These edificies, built of granite, are called by the Chinese Poo-Toofig- 
Tap, and are upon an extensive scale. That belonging to the 
monastery of Honam is a noble piece of masonry, and is divided inta 
compartments, one being for the ashes of monks, and the other for 
those of nuns. The bags of red cloth, with their contents, are 
consigned to these receptacles through small apertures just sufficiently 
large for their admission.' 

CURRENCY. — China presents the curious spectacle of 
an empire without a gold or silver currency in general 
use throughout the land. For centuries, with but slight 
exceptions, the medium of exchange has been the cash, a 
small copper coin of the size of an English halfpenny, but 
only a half or a third as thick, with a square hole in its 
centre for convenience in stringing. It has a raised broad, 
rim round the circumference as well as one round the square 
hole in the centre. In the sunk space between these two 
rims are, on the obverse, four Chinese characters, two of 
Avhich are the style of the Emperor's reign, and two are 
the equivalent of 'current coin.' At the present day ther 



CURRENCY. 155 

majority of the coins also have on the reverse two Manehu- 
characters, one denoting the provincial mint at which the 
coin has been cast, and the other the equivalent of the word 
•'currency.' For some centuries before Christ, and until the 
present time, this has been, in its general features, the 
circulating medium of China. Larger coins of the same 
character have also been coined, but, as a rule, it may be 
said that China has had no gold or silver coinage. A few 
attempts to coin silver have been made once or twice, 
but they have been failures. Edkins says 'Arabian trade 
brought to China the use of silver by weight, as European 
trade at a later period brought the dollar.' ' A thousand 
years ago the people in Central China kept their accounts in 
copper cash.' It is now the general practice, at all events 
in the South, for accounts to be kept in silve'r — taels, mace,, 
candarins, and li (a decimal system : ten 11 making one 
candarin ; ten candarins, one mace; and ten mace, one tael) ; 
there being actually no such coins in existence. Paper notes 
have at different times been issued by the Government, and in 
later times by private firms. They have been much in use in 
certain parts of China — Foochow for example. Marco Polo 
devotes a whole chapter to an account of the paper-money 
in use in China in his time, [See Article on Banks and' 
Bank-notes.) The Chinese readily used the Mexican, South 
American, and other dollars, — half a century ago Spanish 
dollars took the place that the Mexican subsequently held, but, , 
except in the neighbourhood of Hongkong, and often there 
as well, they always weighed them, and they were generally 
stamped, as they passed through the hands of merchants and 
shop-keepers till they fell into pieces and became what is 
known as broken silver, and had to be weighed as each 
transaction took place to know their value. For this purpose 
a small money scale is a part of the equipment of everyone 
going shopping, in time, no doubt, a regular silver coinage 
will drive this practice out. The Japanese, Hongkong, and. 
Straits Settlements subsidiary coins, such as the five, ten and 
twenty cent pieces, are also much in circulation, especially in. 



156 THINGS CHINESE. 

Hongkong and its neighbourliood. The Japanese yen and 
Hongkong dollar are also used. Within the last few years a 
mint has been established at Canton. Tiiis mint is a very fine 
one, and in one respect, that of stamping machines, is the 
largest in the ^vorld. It is under the superintendence of a 
Scotchman, but all the other officials and workmen are 
natives. The following extracts from Consul Brenan's 
Report may prove of interest in this connection : — 

'This mint has not so far [1893] taken upon itself the duty of 
providing the people with a standard of value at the expense of the 
Government. It only cares to work at a profit. * * '■■' '■' -No 
assayer is employed, and the provincial treasury silver is taken to be 
pure, the Canton dollar [few of which have been coined] is not of 
even fineness. Some of the first dollars coined there were found in 
the London mint to be actually <SS4 instead of 900 fine. ■•■'■■ '"' '" 
There is a steady demand [for the subsidiary coins] because of the 
convenience, their passing above their intrinsic value being an 
exemplification of Ricardo's proposition that the value of a coin 
depends on demand and supply. * * * '" There is certain to be 
in time an immense demand for such small silver pieces all over the 
Empire.' 

The coins issued by this mint have been dollars, half 
dollars, twenty, ten, and five cent pieces in silver, copper cents 
and cash. The Government of the Fokien Province had a 
large quantity of silver coins minted for them at this establish- 
ment in Canton. The same Viceroy, Chang Chih-tung, who 
introduced this first mint into China, also established one at 
Wuchang for the benefit of the Hupeh and Hunan Provinces. 
The Central Provinces will probably be supplied from Nanking 
with a new coinage, while the Northern Provinces are also 
minting their own silver money, Anhwei for one having a 
mint of its own. Indeed, so rapidly have these new mints 
been springing up in China within the last few years that it 
is difficult to keep count of them all. Other mints will soon 
doubtless supply other portions of the empire with silver 
coins. The ten and twenty cent pieces issued by the Canton 
mint are largely in circulation in Hongkong, though not 
now received at the Government offices, such as the Post 
office, &c. 



CUSTOMS, IMPERIAL MARITIME. 157 

CUSTOMS, IMPERIAL MARITIME.— In 1853, 

owing to the T'ai P"ing rebels capturing Shanghai, the 
collection of customs duties on foreign bottoms entering that 
port was placed in the hands of foreigners, as a temporary 
measure until order should be restored; but Avhat was intended 
as a modus vivendl for the time being, proved so well adapted 
for the purpose, tliat it became a permanency, and has 
increased with the extension of trade and the opening of 
new treaty ports until it is now a most important department 
with a large and efficient staff recruited from most of the 
European nations, though the English are in the majority. 

The following is the personnel of the establishment: — 
At the head of all are the Inspector-General and the Deputy 
Inspector-General ; immediately below them are the 
Commissioners, 36 in number, who are generally in charge 
of each Custom-house. They are assisted by Deputy Com- 
missioners, of whom there are 17 ; the next ranks being 
Chief, first, second, third and fourtli assistants, of whom 
there are 139; clerks number 14; under the headins: 
of Miscellaneous there are 13 names; and there are 26 
surgeons connected with the Customs, who have private 
practice as well, making a total of 220 Indoor-staff, and 
surgeons 26. The out-door staff number 476, the ranks beino- 
Tidesurveyors, Assistant Tidesurveyors, and Boat officers ; 
Chief Examiners, Examiners, and Assistant Examiners; 
Tidewaiters, and Watchers, t&c. There are also five armed 
cruisers built in England, most of them by Armstrong, 
commanded and officered by Europeans (43 in number) 
and manned by Chinese. A small fleet of armed launches 
is also employed with 22 officers. The lighthouses also on 
the China coast, with the exception of those kept up by the 
Hongkong and Macao Governments, owe their inception and 
maintenance to this same department. There is also a Marine 
Department, which includes the Lighthouse and Harbour 
. Departments, and a small Educational one, as well as a Postal 
Department. Over 4,000 Chinese are in the Customs employ, 
and some 850 Foreigners, or rather more, for the numbers, of- 



158 THINGS CHINESE. 

course, fluctuate from year to year, and, with the opening of 
new treaty ports and the extension of the postal system 
their numbers are increased. The Nationality of the stafl" is, 
roughly stated, as follows : — there are about 550 British, 
about 125 Germans; American, 80; French, about 40; 
Danish, 30 ; Norwegian, some 30 or so ; Portuguese, nearly 30 ; 
Swedish, 20 ; Russian, Spanish, Italian, Belgian, Austrian, 
Dutch, Siamese, Turkish, Hungarian, and Venezuelan are 
below 20 each, some nations having only one in the service. 

About £4*00,000 a year was allowed by the Chinese 
Government for the support and up-keep of this entire service 
of the Imperial Maritime Customs, but the sum has doubtless 
been increased, as the establishment is constantly growing 
and the expeijses increasing. The patronage is in the 
hands of the Inspector-General whose nomination is required 
for appointment. 

Mr. H. N. Lay was the former Inspector-General, but he 
came to grief in 1863 over the Sherard Osborne fleet, and 
was succeeded by Sir Robert Hart, Avho has conducted the 

'Onerous and multifarious duties connected with his position 
witli great tact and ability, winning not only the good 
opinion of the Chinese government, but that of the mer- 
cantile community in China as well. The receipts of a 
most important department are thus handed over intact to 
the Chinese, and notwithstanding the large salaries neces- 
sarily paid to the foreign employes, the Chinese government 
reaps a larger benefit from it than it would from one in 

.purely native hands, so difficult is it for money once in 
the hands of Chinese Mandarins to leave their possession 
without a large percentage being deducted for the benefit of 
each one who has had to do with it. This revenue is likewise 

iionestly collected, a thing impossible of accomplishment 
were natives employed, as bribes and presents are in con- 
tinual use in China. Could this same system be enlarged 

-and extended to the collection of the whole of the Customs 
revenue of China, it would prove of incalculable benefit 

i;o the nation. 



CYCLE. 159 

A further advantage of this service is the moral lesson 
it gives to Chinese officials. Hong Yau Wai, the leader 
of the Chinese Reform Party, speaking of the enormous 
loss of revenue that occurs in China, stated that in his own 
native district, that of Namhoi, out of a total amount of 
|240,000 a year, only something over |20,000 reached 
the Imperial Purse. It is also exerting an improving 
influence on the government system of keeping accounts. 
An accuracy and care is now exercised on them, supposed 
to be the result of the publication quarterly of the Foreign 
Customs accounts; and public accounts 'are now frequently 
printed in the "Peking Gazette," which is a hopeful novelty.' 

CYCLE.— YYom a remote antiquity the Chinese have 
used a cycle of 60 years. This sexagenary cycle is formed 
of two sets of characters : one set consisting of twelve and 
the other of ten, which are combined together in sets of 
two, /. e. each year of the sixty is represented by two 
characters which distinguish it from the other fifty-nine. A 
■sexagenary division also existed in early times in India and 
Babylon. 

The Chinese employ both this cycle as well as the 
year of the reign of the sovereign. The latter is preferable 
as at times the use of the former causes some uncertainty. 
For example, if a book has the name of one of the years of 
the cycle on the title page as the date of its being Avritten or 
of its publication, the question may arise as to which batch 
-of sixty years the date refers — whether it is the year in the 
present cycle of sixty or the year in the last, or a former, 
cycle of sixty years. There is not the precision about it 
under any and every circumstance which there ought to 
be in anything connected with dates. 

DECORATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS.— Mayers, 
who is the great authority on all matters connected with 
Government titles, &c., says most justly that : — 

' Although rewards for distinguished service, or marks of 
Imperial favour the conception of which resembles in some degree 
that of the Eurpean system of Royal or National Orders and Medals 



160 THINGS CHINESE. 

of Distinction, are to be found in China, nothing in the shape of an 
actual Order of Merit approximating to the European type has been 
adopted by the Chinese Government. * * *■' '■■■' Isolated distinctions 
have indeed been conferred in China on foreigners of various 
nationalities, principally for services x-endered in the command of the 
drilled troops during the T'ai Ping rebellion, and subsequently in 
the collection of the customs' revenue, '" '"' '■' but as these are 
bestowed for the most part by provincial authorities, and without the 
sanction of any establised rule or recognised statutes, such as are 
required to constitute what is commonly known as an "Order," the 
badges thus conferred can scarcely be regarded as having a reaL 
value as authentic marks of distinction.' 

There is, however, of late years tlie newly established 
Order, in its various grades, reserved solely for foreigners, 
namely, the Order of the Double Dragon ; it is divided into 
five grades, the first, second, and third being sub-divided 
into three classes. Sir Robert Hai t, the distinguished and able 
head of the Imperial Maritime Customs in China, has the 
decoration of a First Class of the Second Division of this 
Order, and many of the Customs ofiicials have the different 
classes o-f it. Major von Henneken and several of the 
Europeans employed as officers in the Chinese navy were 
decorated Avith it during the war with Japan, and Mr. 
Matheson received it in recognition of his excellent services 
in the construction of the Formosan Railway. The officers 
of the ill-fated German gunboat 'litis,' Avhich was lost recently 
in a typhoon, had the Order of the Duuble Dragon conferred 
upon them for having rescued a number of Chinese soldiers 
from the 'Kow Shing.' 

The purely native decorations and privileges are many 
in number. We note a few of them below : — 

The Riding Cape or Yellow Riding Jacket (ma kw'a) 
though so styled is not necessarily, but at the present day is 
generally, of that colour. It is only worn ' when in personal 
attendance upon the sovereign, in the field, or uponjourneys.' 
Only two Europeans have been honoured with its bestowal — 
General Gordon and M. Giquel. ' It is in colour of a gorgeous, 
golden hue, lined with sleeves of peacock blue- —all of the 
richest silk. It is very capacious * * * reaching down 
-far below the. waist.' . 



DECORATIONS. 161 

Another honorary distinction, conferred upon eminent 
public functionaries, is the privilege of being allowed to ride 
on horseback ' for some distance within the outer gateways 
of the palace, when summoned to an audience ' 

Another class of distinctions is that of the feather. The 
feathers allowed are those of the peacock and the crow. 
They are placed in the back of the hat and stick out, sloping 
downwards. The peacock feathers are three-eyed, double- 
eyed, or single-eyed. The first is conferred on Imperial 
princes, ' nobles of the higher degrees, or for the most signal 
military achievements;' the second is reserved for lower 
officials or dignitaries; and the third 'is bestowed as an 
ordinary form of reward for public service, and during the 
last few decades has been indiscriminately obtainable by 
purchase.' The Crow Feather or Blue Plume is for the 
soldiers of the Imperial Guards, and officials of the seventh, 
eighth, and ninth degrees of rank are rewarded by it. The 
peacock feather has been conferred upon Europeans, amongst 
its recipients being Sir Robert Hart and his brother, Mr. 
James Hart, of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service, and 
some of the foreign officers of the Chinese navy. 

A peculiar feature in connection with these distinctions 
amongst the Chinese is the withdrawal of them as a sign 
of Imperial impatience or displeasure. A notable instance 
of this lately was in the case of the Viceroy Li Hung 
Chang in connection with the troubles with Japan, his 
three-eyed peacock feather and yellow riding jacket were 
the honours of which he was deprived temporarily ; for 
* the slight is often quickly repaired,' not only by tlie 
re-bestowal of the lost honours but by the fresh granting of 
even greater ones. 

General Yeh, who distinguished himself in battle, was 
ordered by the Throne to be rewarded with ' Imperial gifts 
consisting of a white peacock-feather-holder, a small knife, 
a pair of large purses, and a couple of tinderboxes.' 

L 



162 THINGS CHINESE. 

The Bat'uni Distinction derived from the Manchu word 
for ' brave ' is something like the French Legion d'honneur, 
^and is conferrcnl solely for active service in the field.' There 
is no outward sign of its possession, but each recipient gets 
a distinguishing title either in Manchu, Mongolian, or Chinese, 
the first being the most honourable. The title given, for 
instance, might be ' Bat'uru with the title Magnanimous 
Brave.' The bestowal of the title gives the right to wear 
the peacock's feather, though the brave soldier has generally 
obtained that privilege before. Enhanced allowances are 
also the result of the Bat'uru, when on active service. General 
Mesny, who is in the service of the Chinese army, is the 
only European who has obtained this honour; it was bestowed 
on him for services in the province of Kwei-chow. 

Another privilege is the Manchu one, of having the 
sword-scabbard covered with yellow bark from the Rohinia 
pygmcea — a tree belonging to the acaciae family. The Seventh 
Prince, on the accession of the Emperor, Kwong Sui, had this 
bestowed on him. 

Another honour granted is 'the permission to use 
scarlet or purple reins when riding * * * q^ horseback 
* * * and to use the same colour for the props of the 
sedan-chair.' These privileges ' were believed to be reserved 
exclusively for the Imperial family,' but the Viceroy Li has 
had them conferred on him. Yet another honour bestowed 
-on the same high official is a robe made of throat-skins of 
sables, sent as a birthday present to him by the Empress 
Dowager; special permission from the throne is required for 
the wearing of such. 

In this connection it may be interesting to notice two 
distinctions conferred on Sir Robert Hart: the Inspector 
General ' will^ however, receive a piece of silk with the names 
of his three ancestors inscribed thereupon in five colours. 
This is a higher honour than the yellow jacket.' Another 
special decree also ' conferred buttons of the first rank ' on 
liis immediate three ancestors 'for his able administration. 



DECORATIONS. 163 

of the Customs.' Again *the Emperor of China has by 
Imperial Kescript ' done similar honour to the three genera- 
-tions of ancestors of Sir Halliday Macartney, the Secretary 
of the Chinese Legation in London. These are the only two 
.Europeans who have been thus honoured. 

The title of 'Instructor of the Emperor' is a posthumous 
one and it is said ^is never given a man in his lifetime, and 
only to the most distinguished officers after death.' The 
great Tseng kwo-chuan, deceased, and his brother had it : • it 
is unprecedented in liistory that two brothers should be so 
honoured.' 

Among the honours conferred upon the late energetic 
Admiral (and General) Fong by the Throne was the Order 
of the Yellow Flag — ' an honour possessed only by some 
half-dozen recipients in the whole Empire. It carried with 
it the despotic power to order the execution of any subject, 
if of subordinate rank, without reference to Peking.' 

Presentations or testimonials to officials by the people 
take a different form in China to what they do in the West. 

There is the presentation of the official umbrella which 
is a distant cousin of the Italian Baldacchino . It is a 
circular canopy with a deep border and fringe dependent 
from it. 

'It is made of scarlet silk, and on the deep borders which 
encircle it are embroidered in yellow or black silk the names of the 
donors.' 

'At other times, tablets bearing complimentary inscriptions 
are given as testimonials, and these are much prized by the recipients, 
and used to decorate their best receiving rooms.' 

'Another and more comical method of exhibiting the public 
estimation of official probity and worth is for a deputation of the 
inhabitants to wait upon a mandarin at one of the gates of the city 
at the moment of his making his farewell exit, and to beg the gift 
of his boots, which are thenceforth reverently cherished in some 
temple as public property.' 

DEMONIACAL POSSESSION— The Chinese believe 
that madness and many forms of disease are due to possession. 
-by evil spirits. 

L 2 



164 THINGS CHINESE. 

The idea of evil spirits and their Avicked machinations- 
pervades the whole of Chinese society : it crops up in all 
sorts of unexpected places, and permeates and pervades their 
whole round of existence. Does a parent's love go out towards 
some little child, and, as year by year goes by, increase in 
strength, until suddenly some disease takes the little darling 
away from the home it has made bright and happy ? Then 
the miserable solace the bereaved parents have, is that it was 
not a proper child of their own at all, but some spiteful spirit, 
that, after ingratiating itself into their affections, ruined all 
their fond hopes, and dashed their anticipations of future 
bliss by suddenly showing itself in its true colours in 
returning whence it came. 

Some twenty years since some most curious instances of 
apparent demoniacal possession forced themselves upon the 
attention of the missionaries and their native assistants in 
the South of China, bearing seemingly, a close analogy to 
those mentioned in the New Testament in the time of Christ. 
Some of the native preachers treated these cases in the same 
way that the Apostles did, and in several instances with, 
marked results of improvement. 

At Foochow, according to Doolittle, yellow paper charms 
are used, with different devices on them, in a number of 
various ways, to counteract the evil influences when sickness 
is believed to be caused by an evil spirit ; and, in the same 
part of tlie country, whips made of branches of the peach or 
willow, or a scourge, made, in the shape of a snake, out of 
hemp, are employed to beat the bed, and drive away the 
evil spirit. 

There are several diff'erent kinds of demoniacal possession 
according to the Chinese. There is, first, the possession of the 
body produced by demons, who are capable of inducing any 
of the ordinary diseases to which flesh is heir in China. 
Vows and off'erings to the gods are the remedies for those who 
suffer thus involuntarily. The next form is more serious, 
for the demon in this class is supposed to actually dwell 
ivithin the possessed, whose case is, however, diagnosed by 



DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. 165 

the sapient (?) Chinese as being different from that of an 
ordinary lunatic. Dennys in his 'Folklore of China,' quoting 
from an article by Mr. Gardner, treats at some length of 
these, and his account tallies in several respects with those 
given in the Bible of the demoniacs in the time of our 
Saviour. A still worse case is that of those who, thus 
possessed, yield to the demon, the consequence being that 
on their worship of him riches flow in, but, notwithstanding 
all, ill-luck, in the way of retributive justice, follows such ; 
and the ill-gcxtten gains take to themselves wings and flee 
away. There are besides ' devil-dancers ' or spiritual media, 
who profess to be possessed, going into ' a sort of ecstatic 
frenzy, and, when in this state, they answer questions as to 
the disease and remedies to be applied for the relief of those 
on whose behalf they are consulted.' They also believe 
in demons, who to all outward appearance are mortals, 
and who are missionaries from the nether Avorld to warn 
mankind amongst whom they live of the evil consequences 
of indulgence in wrong-doing. 

China would appear to present a better field for the 
ananifestation of such delusions, as the people are so 
ignorant and superstitious and are naturally susceptible. 
Mania, dementia, and hysteria will probably account for all, 
or nearly all, so-called instances of demoniacal possession. 

'Many of these cases of possession are, doubtless, due to 
suggestion. Persons of susceptible temperament, seeing or hearing' 
of others so afflicted are tempted to worry or annoy their friends, and 
are carried away and frightened by their own emotions into an 
hysterical state bordering on actual mania.' 

Story after story might be given under these different 
heads, as well as of superstitions about foxes, which last 
prevail more in the North than in the South of China, but 
for the latter see the article on Fairy Tales. 

JSooJtn recoinmnided. — Denny^i's 'Folklore of China,' Chap. 8. 'Chinese 
Recorder,' Jan. -Feb. 1881, p. 16. ' Chinese and Japanese Repository,' ISep- 
tember 3rd, 18(i3. Doolittle's ' Social Life of the Chinese.' Giles's 'Strange 
:Storief8 from a Chinese Studio,' Vol. 1, pp. 25, 26, 168 ; Vol. 2, p. 300. 
' The Chinese, their Present and Future ; Medical, Political, and Social,' by 
R. Coltinan, Jr., M.D., pp. 149-151. 'Demon Possession and Allied Themes,* 
Jby Rev. J. L. Nevius, d.d. 



166 THINGS CHINESE. 

DIALECTS. — When one travels on the continent of 
Europe one expects, every few hundred miles, to find a 
different language spoken, but because an extent of country 
larger than Europe is all part of one empire, it is generally 
supposed that one language (the Chinese) is spoken through- 
out its length and breadth. It is quite true that it is Chinese 
that is spoken in Peking, as well as in Canton, and it is 
equally true that the inhabitants of Shanghai, Foochow, and 
Amoy as well, all speak Chinese; but it is also true that not 
one of the inhabitants from any of those places could under- 
stand those from the others any more than a Londoner could 
a Berliner; or a Parisian, a Dutchman; or a Spaniard, an 
Italian. It might convey a livelier sense of the difference to 
suppose that the speech in Liverpool was as different from> 
that in London as one European language is from another,, 
so that any merchants from London, who settled in Liverpool, 
would have to learn the language of the people of that city,, 
and Avould be strangers in a strange land, as far as the speech, 
was concerned. Again, suppose that Gaelic was the speech in. 
Edinburgh or Glasgow, a native of those cities settling in 
London would find that to be understood he had to pick up 
the language of the South of England. Again, let Welsh be 
the only language spoken in the principality, a Welshman 
Avould then not be understood in York, or anywhere else in 
England or Scotland. 

Such, then, represents the position of the Chinaman in- 
his own land, for different so-called dialects are spoken in it. 
It it a pity that they have received this name, for it gives 
such a wrong impression as to their range, the number of 
people that speak them, and the very great difference that 
exists between them. 

As the lamented, but talented, Carstairs Douglas says in- 
speaking of one of them : — 

'But such words as "Dialect" or "Colloquial" give an 
erroneous conception of its nature. It is not a mere colloquial 
dialect ox patois ; it is spoken by the highest ranks just as by the 
common people, by the most learned just as by the most ignorant > 
learned men indeed add a few polite or pedantic phrases, but these- 



DIALECTS. 16T 

are mere excrescences (and even they are pronounced accordina" 
to the,' so-called dialect of that part of the country) ' while the main 
body and staple of the spoken language of the most refined and 
learned classes is the same as that of coolies, labourers, and, 
boatmen. Nor does the term " dialect " convey anything like a 
correct idea of its distinctive character : it is no mere dialectic variety 
of some other language ; it is a distinct language, one of the many 
and widely differing languages which divide among them the soil of 
China. * * -■' ■■■ They are cognate languages bearing to each a 
relation similar to that which subsists between the Arabic, the 
Hebrew, the Syriac, the Ethiopic, and the other members of the 
Semitic family ; or again between English, German, Dutch, Danish, 
Swedish, &c.' 

To generalise then, there are throughout Cliina the 
following main divisions of speech or language, generally 
called dialects. We arrange them with some attempt at 
relative age, or the greater or less remains of age contained, 
in them : — - 



1. 


The Cantonese. 


5. 


The Hainanese 


2. 


„ Hakka. 


6. 


„ Shanghai. 


3. 


„ Anioy. 


7. 


„ Ningpo. 


4. 


„ Swatow, 


8. 


., Mandarin. 



(In the Straits Settlements No. 2 is known as the Kheh, 
No. 4 as Till chiu, and No, 5 as Hylam), in this pronunciation 
following that of the Swatow and Araoy people.' 

Mandarin and its cognate branches being the youngest, it 
will thus bo seen that another fallacy,- viz., that Mandarin is 
the language of China, and the others dialects of it, is unten- 
able. Cantonese being more akin to the ancient language of 
China (spoken about 3,000 years ago) than the Mandarin, 
while the Hakka also contains traces of a high antiquity, and i& 
supposed to mark a period long anterior to that represented 
by Mandarin, but, in some respects, subsequent to that period 
of which the Cantonese contains remains, although, in other 
points it has traces of as high, or nearly as high, an 
antiquity. This is true also to some extent of Swatow, 
Amoy, and Shanghai, as well probably as of others ; so that 
it may rather be said that the languages spoken in the 
South-East of China have traces of the ancient speech, 
whereas the Mandarin is modern ; in fact, one appears to have- 



168 THINGS CHINESE. 

^ elements in it which seem to be remnants of a dialect of 
greater antiquity than even the ' Cantonese ' can boast of.' 

Having thus spoken of the grand divisions, we have 
further to draw attention to the fact that, besides these main 
divisions, there are lesser ones, into which they are sub-divided, 
for which, if we give the main divisions the name of 
languages, we have the more fitting term of dialects ; for to 
adapt what we wrote some years since in ' Cantonese Made 
Easy/ they have their real dialects, some of which are spoken 
by tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of natives, 
and which, if they were spoken by the inhabitants of some 
insignificant group of islands in the Pacific, with only a tithe 
of the population, would be honoured by the name of 
languages. We quote again from a monograph by ourselves 
(on the San-Avui Dialect): — At the same time, however, there are 
wheels within wheels in the matter of these Chinese dialects: 
that is to say, the dialect of one district is not one homo- 
geneous whole, though the district may be so small as geogra- 
phically to equal in square miles a few English counties 
only. It will readily be understood that there is scope foi' 
a considerable variation, without this variation being so 
marked as to become a separate dialect or sub-dialect. 
Considerable changes can thus be rung, while }^et the changes 
are not so great as to put the dialect or sub-dialect out of 
harmony with the general characteristics of the particular 
dialect, or language, of which it is a branch. Every now and 
then one comes across villages and towns, which seem almost 
a law to themselves as to their speech, for all the peculiarities 
of the district are so accentuated, and so many new varieties 
of pronunciation introduced, new idioms and words used, as 
well as a diflference in the tones employed, as to result in a 
lingo more or less unintelligible, even to inhabitants of the 
same district, and a perfect jargon of unmeaning sounds to 
a stranger to that part of the country. 

It will thus be seen that the ramifications are numerous, 
for after the division of dialects proper, are the lesser divisions 
of sub-dialects, variations and \ocdX patois. The most minute 



DIALECTS. 169 

■divisions of all are those which present a curious spectacle 
when found to exist in a city itself, as, for instance, there are 
two or three of these minute sub-divisions found in the City 
of Canton, with a population estimated sometimes at a 
million. It is as if about a dozen different minute divisions 
of English were to be found in London : the inhabitants of 
1;hat City south of the Thames having certain peculiarities, 
which would mark them out as different from those in other 
parts of London, while the West End, the City itself, the 
East End, and, not to carry the comparison any further, half 
a dozen other districts of London would each have some few 
local peculiarities of pronunciation distinguishing them from 
'the rest of London. 

The above will help to explode another fallacy, that if a 
man knows one of the so-called dialects, such for instance 
as Cantonese, he is then perfect master of all that may be 
said by people speaking that language. The real facts of the 
case will be better understood if one instances the bewilder- 
ment of a cockney, when landed amongst a crowd of York- 
^hiremen speaking the Yorkshire dialect in its broadest. 

So many are the changes in the language in China that 
it may be said that every hundred miles the language differs 
to a more or less material extent — in some places every 
twenty miles — and a rough estimate has been made th;it 
there are as many dialects in China as there are days in the 
year. The word China, when applied geographically, covers 
such an aggregate of country, that practically a knowledge 
of one of the languages of China is sufficient to carry one 
over hundreds and thousands of miles, though, Avhen it comes 
to a minute and accurate knowledge of all that is said, much 
is left to be desired, and ludicrous mistakes occur. 

It may be of interest to have some general idea, im- 
perfect though it must necessarily be, of the range of the 
•different languages and some of the more important dialects. 
To begin then with Mandarin as being the most widespread. 
It is the speech, in one form or another, in fourteen or 



170 THINGS CHINESE. 

fifteen out of the eighteen provinces into which China is^ 
divided. Mandarin is divided into the northern and southern ► 
The standard dialect of the former being Pekingese, omng to 
the accident of Peking being the seat of the Central Govern- 
ment, while Nankingese holds the same position with regard 
to the southern division. A third marked variety is that of 
Western China, which has its centre in Ching-tu in the 
Sz-chuan province. Besides these, there are a number of 
smaller divisions, such as the Hankow, but, amidst all these 
varieties, there appears to be a better chance of one being 
understood through a much wider extent of country in that 
part of the empire, where Mandarin is spoken as the language 
of the people, than is the case in other parts of China. Taking 
the population of China as 360 000,000, a population say of 
300,000,000 are Mandarin speaking. This is of course a mere 
rough estimate, and, to be accurate would require a considerable 
amount of adjustment, as there are large Hakka speaking com- 
munities amongst them, while on the other hand, there are 
Mandarin speaking people amongst some of the other provinces. 
In the city of Canton alone there are 1 00,000 Mandarin speakers. 
All high officials require a knowledge of Mandarin, those 
who do not know it have therefore to learn it, and the 
consequence is that almost all who aspire to office, or to come 
in contact with official life, acquire it to a greater or lesser 
extent. Many of the plays put on the stage are in Southern 
Mandarin, consequently ardent play-goers have a more or less 
smattering of that variety of it. 

The other languages of China are spoken by smaller 
populations, but by still large enough ones to command 
respect. For example, the people who speak Cantonese, in 
some form or another, number 20,000,000, a population 
falling not far short of that of Italy. This language is in. 
use throughout the larger part of the Kwang-tung, or Canton 
province ; one authority considers that 12,000,000 speak it 
there. It has been estimated that about one-third of the 
people of the province speak Hakka, while in the north-east 
of the same province there is a considerable population 
speaking the Swatow and its variations. The Cantonese 



DIALECTS. 171 

speakers then are in the majority, but they are aot confined 
to this province, for in the next, the Kwang-si, it is also 
largely spoken, especially in the South, some of it being 
of a comparatively pure type, while in other parts it is 
mixed Avith Mandarin. 

It is impossible, without writing a book specially 
dealing with the subject, to give an account of all the 
dialects coming under each separate language. The following 
short notice of some of them in Cantonese may give an idea 
of what may be expected to be found under each grand 
division. The Cantonese has numerous dialects and groups 
of dialects. One group consists of the San-wui, San-ning, 
Yan-p'ing and Hoi-p'ing, a most peculiar class of dialects, 
containing much that is very different from the pure 
Cantonese, and any one of which, when spoken in all its 
broadness, is to a great extent difficult of comprehension. 
Another group consists of the Tung-kwun, San-on, Pok-lo, and 
Tsang-sheng dialects. Besides these, there are a number of 
other dialects such as the Hong-shan, or Macao, the Shan-tuk, 
the Shfii-hing, and others too numerous to mention, each 
district having more or less differences which segregate it and 
its inhabitants to a greater or lesser extent from the neigh- 
bouring districts. It must be remembered that each of these 
dialects have, as has already been said, smaller divisions or 
subdivisions. For example, the San-wili dialect may be 
divided into three, whilst besides this three-fold division 
there are numerous smaller divisions still. The ramifications 
are most minute ; not only are there several slight variations 
in one city or even in one town ; not only does the speech 
of the boat-people differ from that of those on land ; not 
only is there baby-talk ; but there are even certain words, 
which are used by women and never by men — in fact, 
the men would be laughed at if they used them. 

With regard to the Hakka, there do not appear to be 
such differences between the speech of those living in different 
parts of the country, in Kwang-tung at least, as there is 
amono;st the Cantonese. To mention some of these Hakka 



!T2 THINGS CHINESE. 

dialects, there are the Ka-yin-chu, the Sin-an, the Ch^mg-lok, 
and others. Again, with regard to this language, we have 
constantly been met with the supposition that a knowledge 
of" Hakka means a thorough knowledge of Hakka in all its 
dialects. Such knowledge is almost impossible for one man 
to acquire, be he native or foreign. The difference between 
the dialects of Hakka is still sufficiently marked to 
confuse one considerably, until familiarity with speakers 
from different parts of the country overcomes the difficulty. 
In the Canton Province alone not a few millions speak this 
language, roughly estimated at say about the population of 
Portugal and all her Colonies combined ; perhaps about four 
millions says one authority, but this same curious people are 
found in other provinces as well ; at present there is no 
accurate knowledge of their number as a whole. 

The next so-called dialect up the coast is that of the 
Svvatow and neighbouring districts, which is spoken by some 
millions, perhaps three, in one or other of its variations or 
dialects, such for example as the Hoi-fung, Luk-fung, &c. 

Next after this comes the Amoy, which has about the 
same affinity to the Swatow that Spanish bears to Portuguese. 
There are numerous dialects of it, and it is spoken by a large 
population of say 9,000,000 or so — a larger population than 
that of Belgium and Ireland combined. Again, further up 
the coast, but still in the same province, is the Foochow ; it is 
spoken throughout an extent of country of approximately 
130 miles by 270, and by a population of 5,000,000, consider- 
ably more than that of Sweden spread over a larger extent 
of country than Wales. Like all the others, it has 
variations, some twenty or so main ones. Of it, as spoken 
a few hundred miles inland, a writer says : — ' But what 
a Babel of tonsfues and dialects there is among these 
wild mountaineers ! A native can hardly pass the limits 
of his own village but his speech, will betray him.' This 
is, of course, what one would expect in such a moun- 
tainous district ; the country which the Mandarin occupies 
is, much of it, of a more level type. 



DIALECTS. 173 

Besides these, there are the languages of Shanghai and 

Ningpo, and otliers less well known to the foreigner, and 

consequently whose divisions into dialects have been less 
studied. 

The Hainanese is spoken in the island of Hainan, where 
numerous other speeches are in use, Hainanese being, however, 
the lingua franca; it has also numerous vaiiations, the 
dialect of Kiung-chau being the standard. It is allied to the 
Amoy and Swatow, but is very different in some respects, 
having some peculiarities, incident also to the Japanese, in 
the change of letters in the pronunciation of a word. It is 
spoken by three millions of jDeople, being used in the 
Luichow peninsular. 

The number of syllables in some of the different speeches 
of China are as follows :- — 



1. Amoy, 846. 

2. Cantonese, 780. 

3. Foochow, 7S6. 

4. Hakka, 700. 

5. Hankow, 316. 

6. Ningpo, 444. 



7. Pekingese, 430. 

8. Shanghai, &60. 

9. Swatow, 674. 
10. Wenchow, 452. 
XI. Yangchow, 415. 



Mr. E. H. Parker, a great authority on Chinese dialects 
says :— 

'It is plain that 1,500 years back the Chinese dialects had for 
centuries been almost as numerous as they are now,' and he says 
further, 'from the earliest historical times, widely different dialects 
have been spoken in China.' ' Between the dialects of Peking, 
Hankow, .Sz-Ch'uan, Yangchow, Canton, Hakka, Foochow, Wenchow, 
and Ningpo, * * * there is complete homogeneity; and though, 
the variations between this and that dialect are often greater * '•■' ■■' 
than the differences between Portuguese and French (as one extreme), 
and no greater than between Flemish and Dutch (as another extreme), 
yet the rigid adherences of all to theoretical standards is more perfect 
than in the European languages or dialects.' 

The so-called, dialects are, however, in many respects as 
different as one European language from another. These 
differences are partly due to climatic and telluric influences, 
individual, and local peculiarities of utterance which have 
been perpetuated, and the effects of succeeding waves of 
migration from different parts; possibly the influence of 
preceding residents, as well as other more obscure causes 



174 THINGS CHINESE. 

have also been responsible to some extent. Some of the 
reasons for these divergences in languages or dialects can be 
seen, but the whole subject is one that would repay study. 
We may here draw attention to a few of the causes : tlie 
mixture of people speaking different dialects produces a new 
form ; old forms are retained in one dialect, while other 
dialects may discard these and retain others ; localisms are 
perpetuated, and new terms are sometimes brought back by 
those who have been in other districts and find a permanent 
home away from their original habitat ; migrations take 
place from, and to, different parts of the country, so tliat 
districts Avide apart are more similar in their speech than 
the intermediate country is to one or the other. 'There can 
be little doubt that the corruption of old Chinese into the 
modern "Mandarin" dialects was caused chiefly by the 
immense admixture of Tartar and Thibetan blood during 
the period 300—900 A.D.' 

It is a dream of some Chinese to introduce a uniform 
language in place of the numerous so-called dialects that exist 
throughout the length and breadth of the land. About 200 
years ago the Emperor Kang Hi caussd schools to be 
established in Canton, and elsewhere, for this purpose. We 
question if the result the scheme was meant to accomplish is 
much nearer fulfilment now than at that time. In the future, 
doubtless, it will be brought about to a greater or lesser extent, 
but by other means than that, for there is but little reasonable 
doubt that when the railway shall have drawn the distant 
parts of China together by the meshes of its network, the 
unification of the language Avill proceed with more rapid 
strides, as the nation by it, and other means dependent upon 
and accelerated by it, becomes welded into a homogeneous 
whole. 

What then will be the speech that will succeed to this 
confusion of tongues in China? We believe if, that is to say, 
China is not subdivided, but continues as one empire in the 
future, in the course of time (it may take centuries to accom- 
plish it) one language will gradually, either take the place 



DIVORCE. 175 

of the others, or the others will, modifying the one, give 
place to a new language, which will perhaps contain the best 
features of all, and be an advance on any now spoken. The 
language that bids fair to take this prominent position in 
the future .would seem to be the Mandarin, at all events it 
stands as good a chance as any, if not a better than many, of 
taking this enviable position. 

Boohs recommended. — Numerous articles have appeared in the ' China 
Review ' and " Missionary Recorder,' amongst which may be instanced those 
by E. H. Parker, by Don, and by the present writer. Also see the 
'Philological Essay' by E. H. Parker in Giles's new 'Chinese English 
Dictionary.' 

DIVORCE. — There are seven reasons for whicli, 
•according to Chinese law, a man may divorce his wife ; they 
are barrenness, lasciviousness, jealousy, talkativeness, thievery, 
disobedience towards her husband's parents, and leprosy. 
These seem sweeping enough in all conscience ; and to those 
unacquainted with the inner life of the Chinese, it would 
seem simple enough for a man to bring his Avife to book under 
one or other of these, and rid himself of an uncongenial 
companion, but such is not the case in practice. The wife's 
relations have to be considered in the matter ; and again, if 
she has no parents, she cannot be put away, as they are not 
living to receive her back again; further, for the lesser offences, 
he cannot put her away if he be in mourning for a parent ; 
and, yet again, it is much simpler for a Chinese, (and causes 
much less ill-feeling to all parties concerned) in case no sou 
is born to him, to take a concubine or secondary wife (not 
a second wife except by courtesy, for a Chinese has only 
one legal wife, see Article on Marriage) and increase the 
number, one after the other, until he obtains the longed-for 
heir or future worshipper at the family tombs, or failing 
this, he may adopt a son. [See Article on Adoption.) All 
these different expedients and restrictions nullify, or render 
unnecessary, the provisions as to divorce, which, like every- 
thing Chinese, is theoretically easy of accomplishment, but 
in practice is something very different. Statistics are difficult 
to obtain in China, and, when obtained, are very unreliable 
owins: to the inexactitude of the Chinese mind — one of their 



176 THINGS CHINESE. 

most common characteristics. No statistics, as far as the- 
author is aware, are obtainable on this particular subject; 
but, judging from a long residence amongst the people, he 
would say that divorce is not any oftener resorted to than 
in England, probably less often by far. 

Besides Avhat has been said above, a married couple may 
mutually agree to separate ; again, by law a husband is liable 
to be punished if his wife is convicted of adultery, and he 
does not put her away. But there is as high a standard of 
chastity among many classes of Chinese married women as 
there is among women of the West, and such a rule among 
the middle and higher classes, at least, does not often require 
application. 

This is the law and custom as between husband and 
wife. It is very different, however, when the wife has to 
complain of her husband. She has then practically no 
redress or safeguards (unless he break her bones, when 
he is amenable to law), except the small and uncertain 
modicum of public opinion, which may keep her husband 
from transgressing too much, or better still, the punish- 
ment which his wife's family will take in hand, should 
he act so as to bring disgrace on them. 

The case is quite different with the so-called secondary 
wives. They are not a man's wives in the sight of the 
law, that is to say they do not stand on a footing of 
equality, though recognised as concubines, for there is 
only one first legitimate wife; and a man is free to 
dismiss these concubines from his bed and board and 
treat them in a way he would not dare to act towards 
his first wife (though a man may be cruel enough to her 
in China, as well as in England, if he choose). This treat- 
ment may be modified more or less by the prospective 
counteraction of the so-called wife's relations and her 
social position, presuming she has any. If she has none, 
or if her position is of no account, as is more then likely 
often to be the case Avith a secondary wife, beggary or 



DOCTORS. 177 

prostitution stares her in the face,, unless she is fortunate 

enough to enter another family in a similar position. 

Boolis recummeiidefl. — 'The Status of Women in China.' bv Rev. 
E. Faher. Dr. Theol. Most books on China also contain longer or shorter 
paragraphs on the same subject ; si'c, for example, Williams's ' Middle 
Kingdom ' and Gray's 'China;' also see Articles in this book on Marriage^ 
and Women. 

DOCTORS. — The native doctor is a curious character : 
he passes no examination ; he requires no qualification. He 
may have failed in business and set up as a physician for 
which he requires no stock in trade, medical instruments are 
almost unknown {See Article on Acupuncture.) If he can 
get an old book of prescriptions from another retiring 
practitioner, so much the better for liim. He is uow fit to 
kill or cure as chance may will it, or as his ignorance or 
fortuitous circumstances may decree. The doctor most 
entitled to confidence in the sight of his countrymen is the 
man whose father has been one before him and tlie confidence 
increases should his grandfather have followed the same 
calling. This it might be supposed was due to an ignorant 
belief in the influence of heredity ; but, as it is stated bv the 
Chinese, the value in their eyes consists in the son or grand- 
son possessing all the books of prescriptions of his sires. 
Thus provided, he is ready to begin his empirical career. 
Fees vary according to the class of man and his patients, and 
according to the place of residence, whether it be a fashion- 
able quarter or poor suburbs, or whether it be town or 
country. The enormous sum of perhaps thirty cents or half 
a dollar may be charged per visit if he comes in his sedan to 
see his patient, and of this amount a large proportion would 
go for tlie chair and the rest for the doctor himself. Should 
he belong to the humbler ranks and come on foot, his fee is 
proportionately cheaper. He puts on a solemn air and has 
quite an o\vl-like look, as he peers out of the semi-darkness 
of a Chinese bedroom through his great. goggle-shaped glasses 
— each lens of which is two inches across and set in huije 
uncouth, copper fraiues. The thing of the greatest importance 
is feeling the difi"erent pulses of the human system, of which 
the Chinese count a number. The pulse at each wrist is felt, 

M 



178 THINGS CHINESE. 

and each is divided into three, which, according to the light 
or heavy character of the pressure, indicates a different organ 
of the body, so, by thus feeling the pulses, the states of a 
dozen real or imaginary organs are determined. Having 
then learned by the pressure of these three at each pulse the 
seat of the disease, a few questions may be asked by 
the doctor, but these are scarcely considered necessary. A 
prescription, sometimes composed of the most horrible and 
nauseous compounds, is prepared in large doses, for the native 
idea is that the larger the dose, the more likely it is to prove 
efficacious. In prescribing for natives, the foreign doctors 
have to be most careful, as most ludicrous cases have occur- 
red, such as the paper being swallowed by the sick ignoramus, 
as well as the powder or pill it contained. 

Amongst their medicines besides some that are to be 
found in our Western Materia Medica are snake skins, fossils, 
rhinoceros or hart's horn shavings, silk-worm and human 
secretions, asbestos, moths, oyster shells, &c., &c. Almost 
anything that is disgusting is considered good as a medicine. 
Apothecaries' shops abound where the doctors' 2:)rescriptions 
are made up or where the patients themselves procure medi- 
cines as they think they require them. Quack advertisements 
are placarded on almost every blank well. 

The manner in which the Chinese treat their physicians 
is rather peculiar. Should a speedy cure not result from the 
doctor's treatment, the patient calls in another, and, if no 
better, yet another, and so on in rapid succession, until, 
all human aid failing, he perchance at last goes to his gods, 
if he has not already tried them before. 

It is not an' uncommon sight to see a woman waving a 
child's jacket in her hand in the street, Avhile she croons in 
a monotonous voice to the spirit of the sick child to return 
to the body from whence, the child being in an unconscious 
or comatose condition, it is supposed to have fled. 

In seasons of epidemic, large processions are got up by 
the different commercial guilds, every shopkeeper and house- 
holder being called upon for a subscription. 

Books recommended. — Williams's ' Middle Kingdom.' 



DOGS. 179 

DOGS. — The clog is so much in evidence in China that 
he deserves an article to himself. From the erroneous im- 
pression that dogs form one of the principal items of a 
Chinaman's diet, the common variety has been dubbed the 
* chow dog.' A glance at one of this species is enough to 
show its great likeness to that depicted in books of Arctic 
travel, and known as the Esquimaux dog. This Chinese dog 
approaches much nearer to the original wolf type than the 
more highly bred species to be found in our western lands. 
That they are not more highly developed is doubtless due to 
the apathy of the Chinese with regard to them, for though 
kept by many families as a watch dog, the animal is not 
petted and made so much of as would be the case amongst 
us ; for instance he is not made a companion of his master's 
walks, nor when his owner often does not appreciate the 
luxury or necessity of a bath, is it likely that his dog would 
be given one. He lies at the outer-door, or in the shop, or 
prowls about the street very much uncared for according to 
our ideas of the treatment of our pets, dogging the steps of 
the foreigner, scarcely ever attacking him boldly but retreat- 
ing before him in a cowardly manner, and seeking safety at 
his master's door to be re-inforced with fresh courage as the 
stranger passes, when he issues out behind his back Avith 
his irritating bark, which has been described as a 'short, 
thick snap, very unlike the deep, sonorous baying of our 
mastiffs.' He begins with several of these and runs off into 
a quick succession of them for a few seconds, a series of 
these short refrains producing a most monotonous effect, 
especially when lasting for a long time. The vigorous greet- 
ing thus received from the whole pack of village dogs is 
extremely unpleasant Avhen one is out for a country walk ; 
though apparently very fierce, there is generally but little 
danger to be apprehended. The chow dogs are all about the 
same size, a foot in height and about two feet in length. 
The colours are uniform in one individual and consist of 
light brown, black, and creamy yellow. A writer in '' Home 
ITotes ' on dogs thus describes them : — 

' Black chows, or the edible dogs of China, are very fine animals 

M 2 



180 THINGS CHINESE. 

of the size of a small collie, and of the Pomeranian type, the desirable 
points being almost identical. The tongue and roof of the mouth are 
black, and the eyes very small and keen. They are faithful creatures, 
and become greatly attached to their owners.' The good points in 
Pomeranians are 'thick long hair, a well "feathered" tail (styled the 
plume ), long hair on the back of the forelegs, small ears, fox-shaped 
head, and a frill of thick fur round the neck.' 

The ears do not hang down, but are sharp and upright, 
except in a variety to be found in the province of Ngan- 
hwui, which 'has pendent ears of great length.' One pecu- 
liar feature in these dogs is the abrupt rise of the tail from 
the insertion, whence it curls up over the back, never hang- 
ing down. This is so marked that a wag has said that thfr 
tail almost assists in lifting the legs from the ground. 
This abrupt rise is heightened doubtless in appearance by 
the unusually straiglit hind legs, giving a somewhat un- 
gainly look to the animal. The chow is not a very rapid 
runner, probably this style of hind legs handicapping it.. 
The bitch has dew-cla\\'s on her hind legs, one on each, but 
the male has none. The Chinese sav of the dog that it ' can 
go on three legs.' 

' The dogs of Peking are very clannish, and each set jealously 
guards its own street or yard ; they are fed by the butchers in the 
street and serve as scavengers there, and in all large towns. They 
are often mangey, presenting hideous spectacles, and instances of 
plica polonica are not uncommon, but, as among the celebrated street 
dogs of Constantinople, hydrophobia is almost unheard of.' 

There is another breed of dog, the Pekingese pug, or 
sleeve dog ; the latter name has been given to it from the 
masters carrying this pretty little pet in their capacious 
sleeves. Dr. Rennie says of it : — 'The breed is a very pecu- 
liar one, something between the King Charles and the pug/ 
What are termed in England ' Japanese spaniels/ which ap- 
pear if not identical with, to be very similar to the Pekingese 
dog, and some specimens of which were taken from the 
Summer Palace at Peking to England, are thus described : — 

' They are docile, playful, and affectionate, and of unusual intelli- 
gence. Their long silky coats, delicate and finely formed paws, large, 
lustrous eyes, massive heads, and long, feathery tails, proudly curled 
over their backs make them beautiful pets. * * '■■. Smallness is an 
important point as they are carried in the large sleeves of Japanese 
ladies and called 'sleeve dogs.' 



DRAGON. 181 

A writer in * Cornhill ' for July, 1896, speaks about 

'A large chow-dog from Northern China, which a freak of fashion 
"has decreed shall be kept as a pet by English ladies. These dogs are 
not suited either by nature or training for domestic pets. They are 
only half-civilised dogs, very excitable, often savage, and so little con- 
sidered as household companions in their native Manchuria that they 
are bred for the sake of their fur, and killed, like seals when the fur is 
in season. Hut they are born sledge-dogs, immensely strong in the 
shoulder and short in the neck, with pulling powers far greater than 
those of any of the breeds used in Holland and Belgium for drawing 
carts. If the laws against the use of dogs for draught are repealed 
just as the laws against road-engines and steam-carts are about to be 
repealed, the "chows" would form the basis of a new breed of cart 
dogs for minor traffic' 

There is a large breed of clogs in Thibet which are 
mentioned by tiumerous authors : — 

]\Iarco Polo says of them. — 'They have dogs of the size of asses, 
strong enough to hunt all sorts of wild beasts, particularly the wild 
oxen, which are "•■' '■"' * extremely large and fierce.' Turner 
describes them as — 'Huge dogs, tremendously fierce, strong, and 
noisy ■■•' * '■- so imperiously furious, that it was unsafe, unless 
the keepers were near, even to approach their dens.' Again he says. — 
' Up started a huge dog, big enough '■- '■■' ■■- to fight a lion.' Captain 
Raper describes one. — 'A remarkably fine animal as large as a New- 
foundland dog, with very long hair, and a head resembling a mastiff's. 
His tail was of an amazing length, like the brush of a fo.x, and curled 
h.df-way over his back.' Mr. Hosie speaks of them as — 'Fine, 
powerful dogs. * The animal brought to me for inspection 

required the whole strength of a Thibetan to keep him in check. 
Had I bought the dog, which was offered for ten taels, I should have 
had to engage his keeper also.' 

Bnol-x i-rcovniwndrcl. — William's 'Middle Kingdom,' Gray's 'China, 
Hurt's 'Western China,' 'Asiatic Researches,' Vol. XI., p. .529, Turners 
'Embassy to Thibet,' pp. 155-21.5, Hosie's 'Three years in Western China,' 
p 134. 

DRAGOy. — The dragon is the Imperial emblem of 
China — the emblem of Imperial power — and is symbolical of 
what pertains to the Emperor: his person is called 'the 
•dragon's person', his countenance, 'the dragon's face'; his 
■eye, 'the dragon's eye'; his hands are 'the dragon's claws'; 
his sleeve, 'the dragon's sleeve'; his children are 'the 
dragon's seed'; his pen, (that is the Emperor's autograph) 
'the dragon pen'; his throne is 'the dragon's seat,' when he 
mounts it, the action is spoken of as 'the dragon's flight'; 



182 THINGS CHINESE. 

his bed, 'the dragon's bedstead'; his decease is euphemisti- 
cally termed' the Emperor ascended upon the dragon to be a 
guest on high'; and his ancestral tablet is called ' the dragon 
tablet.' 

The dragon, which is reserved for Imperial use in de- 
signs on furniture, porcelain, and clothing, is depicted with 
five claws ; that in use by the common people has four. A 
Chinese author thus describes the dragon : — 

'Its head is like a camel's, its horns like a deer's, its eyes like a. 
hare's, its ears like a bull's, its neck like a snake's, its belly like an 
iguanodon's, its scales like a carp's, its claws like an eagle's, and its 
paws like a tiger's. Its scales number eighty-one, being nine by nine, 
the extreme '^odd or) lucky number. Its voice resembles the beating 
of a gong. On each side of its mouth are whiskers, under its chin is 
a bright pearl, under its throat the scales are reversed, on the top of 
its head is the poh slian, which others call the wooden foot-rule. A 
dragon without a foot-rule cannot ascend the skies. When its breath 
escapes it forms clouds, sometimes changing into rain, at other times 
into fire.' 

Having thus given an accurate description of this 
wonderful creature ( one of the four supernatural [ or spiri- 
tually endowed] creatures, according to the Chinese, the 
others being the Tortoise, the Lin and the Feng), it only 
remains to be said that 'it wields the power of transforma- 
tion and the gift of rendering itself visible or invisible at 
pleasure.' Another Chinese authority informs us that ' the 
dragon becomes at will reduced to the size of a silkworm, or 
SAvollen till it fills the space of Heaven and Earth. It desires 
to mount — and it rises till it affronts the clouds ; to sink — 
and it descends until hidden below the fountains of the deep.' 
The Chinese most thoroughly believe in the existence of this 
mysterious and marvellous creature : it appears in their an- 
cient history; the legends of Buddhism abound with it; 
Taouist tales contain circumstantial accounts of its doings ; 
the whole country side is filled with stories of its hidden 
abodes, its terrific appearances ; while it holds a prominent 
part in the pseudo-science of geomancy ; its portrait appears 
in houses and temples, and serves even more than the 
grotesque lion as an ornament in architecture, art designs, 
and fabrics. 



DRAGON. 183 

There are numerous dragons — too numerous to enter 
even into a succinct account of them in the space of a short 
article. Volumes might be filled with a history of this 
wonderful antideluvian creature, embalmed in Chinese 
literature and memory. 

Among other roles that the dragon fills is that of a 
modern Neptune to the Chinese. In this character he occu- 
pies a palace made of pearls at the bottom of the sea, sends 
rain, and waters the thirsty land. 

]\Iany years ago, in England, the writer came across an 
old gentleman, interested in China, who was firmly of the be- 
lief that the Chinese worshipped the devil because they paid 
divine h(jnours to the dragon. Only another instance, out 
of many, of the fallacy of reasoning on Chinese subjects fr(;m 
European premises. They worship the dragon, but it does 
not follow that their dragon is ' that old dragon,' the devil. 

Another dragon is the bobtailed dragon, which causes 
whirlwinds ; a frightfully destructive one in Canton city a 
number of years ago was believed to be due to his agency. 

The district of country on the mainland immediately 
opposite the English colony of Hongkong is called Kau-lung 
(generally written, Kowloong, or Kowloon), or the Nine 
Dragons, probably so named from the numerous ranges of 
hills, which like gigantic monsters spread their sinuous 
course along the coast, the nine dragons being a favorite 
number with the Chinese, and represented in some of their 
ancient works on standards. The national flag of China 
adopted with, and by, the navy of. foreign-built ships, was 
a triangular yellow flag with a dragon on it, now changed 
to an oblong one more in keeping with the shape of other 
national flags, but with the same device. 

The conventional representations of the dragon, as 
we have already said, are commonly divisible into two. 
On Imperial China we see a snake-like body mounted on four 
legs, with an enormous head, the feet are five clawed. This 
is sprawled over the dish, or whatever it may be, and covers 



184 THINGS CHINESE. 

the greater part of it. On vases used by the people as 
ornaments, a scope is given for ingenuity by the introduction 
of a number of similar saurians (but only Avith four claws) in 
different positions on the vase — front views being given as 
well, in which the tAvo horns are seen. On mural pictures and 
in paintings on wood, inserted above doorways, the rain dragon 
is the one usually represented. Here what is seen of the 
hideous monster conveys more the impression of an enormous 
python, as folds of a very thick and large snake-like body 
are visible amongst masses of clouds, the half suggestive 
revelation of what is seen increasing, if anything, the impres- 
sion of size, while a frightful head fronts one, full-faced, 
with all its gigantic repulsiveness. In books printed under 
Imperial sanction or auspices, two dragons encircle the title, 
striving, not like the lion and the unicorn for the crown, but 
for a pearl. There are again two kinds of dragons carried in 
some of the processions of which the Chinese are so fond. 
They are at such times represented as long serpentine crea- 
tures of great girth, and 150 or 200 feet long, made of 
lengths of gay, bright-coloured crape and sparkling with tiny 
spangle-like mirrors. Every yard or so a couple of human 
feet — those of the bearers —buskined in gorgeous silk, are 
visible, the head and shoulders of the men being unseen. 
The Avhole is fronted by an enormous head of ferocious 
aspect, before the gaping jaws of which a man manoeuvres a 
large pearl after which the dragon prances and wriggles. 
The difference between the two kinds is that the one is 
resplendent with gold scales, while the other gleams with 
silver ones. That this difierent way of representation is 
not due to simple fancy, appears from the fact that in India 
they distinguish three varieties of dragon : one of which 
lived in the mountains and had golden scales ; and the other 
in caves or flat country and had silver scales ; while the third 
dwelt in marshes and fens and was of a black colour The 
rain dragon used in mural representations, appears more like 
the last. We give the following account of the supposed 



DRAGON-BOAT FESTIVAL. !85 

origin of the dragon from tho learned pen of Mr. Cliarles 
Gonld : - ' 

'It [the dragon] is more likely to have once had a real existence 
than to be a mere offspring of fancy. * * '■" '■-' We may infer 
that it was a long terrestrial lizard, hibernating and carnivorous, with 
the power of constricting with its snake-like body and tail; possibly 
furnished with wing-like expansions of its integument, after the fashion 
of /^/Vic "•(»//?;/.';, and capable of occasional progress on its hind legs 
alone, when excited in attacks. It appears to have been protected 
by armour and projecting spikes, like those found in Moloch /torrufns 
and Mci^alania prisca, and was possibly more nearly allied to this last 
form than to any other which has yet come to our knowledge. 
Probably it preferred sandy, open country to forest land, its habitat 
was the highlands of Central Asia, and the time of its disappearance 
about that of the Biblical Deluge. •'' ''■•' "•■' Although terrestrial, it 
probably, in common with most reptiles, enjoyed frequent bathing, 
and when not so engaged, or basking in the sun, secluded itself under 
some overhanging bank or cavern. The idea of its fondness for 
swallows, and power of attracting them, mentioned in some traditions, 
may not impossibly have been derived from these birds hawking 
round and through its open jaws in the pursuit of the flies attracted 
by the viscid humours of its mouth.' 

lioolts recontmnided. — ■ Mythical Monsters,' hy C. Gould, B.A. ' Scraps 
from Chinese Mythology,' in ' China Review,' Vol. 13, by Rev. Dj^er Ball, 
M.A., M.D.. annotated by J. Dyer Kail. 



DRAGON-BOATS AND THE DRAGON BOAT 
FESTIVAL. — This festival is the nearest approach to an 
annual regatta that the Chinese possess. It is held on the 
fifth day of the fifth moon, but the preceding days shadow 
forth the feast day as well. 

It took its origin in the commemoration of a virtuous 
minister of state whoso remonstrances were unheeded by his 
unworthy sovereign, and whose only reward was degradation 
and dismissal some 450 years B.C. He committed suicide, 
and on the first anniversary of his death the ceremony of. 
looking for his body was commenced; it has been continued 
on succeeding anniversaries ever since, and has resulted in 
this festival. Little packages of boiled rice, done up in 
bamboo leaves, are eaten at this time, as such offerings were 
€ast into the river by the fishermen who tried to recover the 
body. 



186 THINGS CHINESE. 

The dragon-boats are long narrow boats from fifty tO' 
one hundred feet in length, broad enough to seat two men 
abreast. The craft is propelled rapidly with paddles, accom- 
panied by the sound of a drum and gongs which are placed 
in the centre of the boat. Impromptu races are got up, not 
unattended with accidents at times, as the boats are slight 
and dangerous when paddled by well nigh a hundred excited 
Chinamen, Avild with enthusiasm and unsteady with spirits. 
Large crowds of spectators line every vantage ground on the 
banks of the rivers; and prizes of no intrinsic value are 
often offered by them, which are eagerly contested for, the 
bare honour of winning spurring them on in their efforts; the 
crews are occasionally treated by wealthy hongs on the 
banks. For hours and days nothing is heard but the 
unceasing monotonous clang of the gongs, and the boom of 
the deep-toned drums in the numerous boats. 

This Dragon-Boat Festival is one of the four festivals at 
Avhich settlements of accounts take place amongst the Chinese; 
the others being New Year's Eve, occurring sometime in our 
January or February; the Moon Festival on the loth day of 
the 8th moon, in September or October; and the Winter 
Solstice Festival, a variable festival in the 11th moon, 
November or December. The Dragon-Boat Festival is the 
second of the series, occurring on the 5th day of the 5th 
moon, in June or July. 

Bdolis vccovimcnded. — Archdeacon Gray's "China,' Vol. I., p. 258 et 
seq. Ddolittle's ' Social Life of the Chinese,' Vol. 2, p. 55 et seq. Maj'ers's 
' Chinese Reader's Manual ' p. 107. 

DRESS. — The foundation, or starting point, of all 
Chinese dress is the loose pair of trousers and the almost 
equally loose fitting jacket; with these two articles on, a 
Chinese is completely dressed: all the rest are not necessaries, 
but luxuries. The fundamental idea is simply displayed 
in these two ; the other articles which are piled on in a 
greater or lesser degree, owing to the weather, or the length 
of the owner's purse, are merely, with the exception of the 
headgear and that for the feet, an elaboration of that simple 



DRESS. 18T 

idea. Take any article of male attire. Tlie long gaberdine 
or robe is only the jacket whicli has overgrown to the 
ankles, instead of stopping short a little below the middle of 
the body : it has not an entirely diiferent shape, as with our 
various shapes of coats and jackets, or what difference there 
is, is but slight; and even, what, t'ov want of a better term, one 
calls a waistcoat, is not quite another style of article, but 
simply a short straight jacket without sleeves, buttoning up as 
the common, close-fitting, sleeveless one (worn occasionally 
by the labouring classes) does. There are two varieties of it : 
one so buttoning ; and one fastened at the side. A riding 
jacket has wide sleeves, but is still a jacket. The jackets of 
the women are of a different shape from that of the men, being 
longer, reaching well towards the knees, and having much 
wider sleeves. 

If one proceeds to the lower extremities, there are, as 
said above, the loose-fitting trousers. These sometimes are 
tucked into long stockings, which are neatly bound with 
garters below the knee, and presto ! our boy or waiter is in 
knickerbockers — the same pair of trousers doing duty for 
both styles of dress. Is the weather cold? Then a pair of 
leggings is put on. These are simply single legs of peg-top 
troupers diminishing gradually in calibre, as they proceed 
downwards till their extremities are tied round the ankles. 
They are fastened up to the girdle at the waist ; but there is 
a void space beliind, where they do not meet, and where the 
inner jacket hangs in folds, presenting a most untidy 
appearance unless a long robe is worn over all to hide it. A 
woman's trousers are exactly the same shape as a man's 
They do not wear knickerbockers, but the middle and upper 
classes often wear, especially when dressed up, what, for 
want of a better name, are called skirts. These are the very 
embodiment of the divided skirt, for the simple reason that 
their different component parts have never been united, and, 
at the same time, they have a trace of the trousers still 
about them ; trousers unfinished, as it were, for one piece 
hangs in front down to the ankles, like an apron, and 



188 THINGS CHINESE. 

anotlier piece hangs behind in the same way ; they are but- 
toned up at one side, and open at the other, while embroid- 
ery and numerous pleats in vertical lines adorn them. 

There are several varieties of dress besides those named 
above, adapted to different uses, as well as to the changes of 
weather. For instance nature's garb appears to be often all 
sufficient for the Swatow fisherman or farmer, and even many 
of the boatmen at the city of Tie Teong, near Swatow, wear 
nothing else at times. In other parts of China the savage 
state is not so nearly approached except in the case of young 
children of the poorer classes, who run about naked for 
several years, the several years being of longer duration, 
wlien they are boys. In Amoy and Swatow it is not at all 
uncommon to see a boy with nothing on at all but a purse. 
It, must, however, he explained that the purse is more of an 
apron or pinafore than with us, and is fastened round the 
neck, covering as much of the front of the body as decency 
requires in a hot climate — though this last is not always even 
attended to. The common coolie or labourer considers himself 
sufficiently attired for his work in hot weather, with a loin 
cloth and a pair of straw sandals, but the latter are optional. 
•Others make shift with a pair of short trousers, only reach- 
ing half-way down the thighs, or roll the longer trousers up 
that length, or as far as they will go. In the pure native 
dress nothing in the form of a shirt or cinglet is worn, 
though now of late years, from contact witli foreigners, the 
iatter is being adopted by a few, and must be much more com- 
fortable in cold weather than the loose fitting jacket. Coats, 
jackets, and trousers, varied only by robes, and leggings, are 
piled one on the top of the other as the weather gets colder. 
The upper garments are readily cast off in the middle of the 
day, or in a warm room, thus offering a great advantage, in 
this one particular, to our style of dress, where a top- 
coat is the only thing one can throw off on entering a 
house. 

The women's innermost garment is of thin stuff, close 
.fitting, and closely buttoned up the front, but above this, the 



DRESS. 189 

usual piling on of jackets takes place if the Aveather rcijuires 
it. The women wear no long robes. 

Loss care is taken of the legs with both men and women,, 
and fewer thicknesses appear to satisfy" them there. There 
is a considerable variety displayed in sandals, boots, and shoes. 
Besides the straw ones, already mentioned as worn by men, 
simple soles of leather, with a loop for one of the toes, and 
strings to tie them round the ankles, are worn by those of 
both sexes, who labour out-of-doors in carrying burdens, &c. 
Mens' and womens' shoes on the contrary are quite distinct. 
One of the most marked differences being in the thickness 
of the sole. The large footed women are perched up on a 
thick white sole, two or three inches in height. Of late 
years, Shanghai shoes with thin soles have come into 
vogue amongst those who are well dressed. And again 
a curious style is in fashion : it consists of the whole 
foot being poised on a round pedestal a few inches high, 
fixed in the centre of the sole. Common shoes are made 
of cloth, but silk and satin and embroidery are also largely 
employed. The cramped-up little feet are enclosed, after 
being wound up in long bandages, in small shoes of from 
three to. four or five inches in length, coming to a point at 
the toe. No stockings can be put on wdth such feet, but 
they are worn on the natural feet by Avomen as well as by 
men, or rather, to be correct, socks and stockings are both 
worn by men, the former principally in summer, and socks 
are generally used by women, though stockings are also 
put on. Those of foreign manufacture are coming into use 
at treaty ports; the native ones consist of pieces of calico 
sewn together. It may be mentioned that both sexes wear 
a girdle of cord round the waist to fasten their trousers up, 
by hitching them over it. There are no openings in the 
trousers, except for the legs and waist. A collar, or rather 
stock, made of satin, is worn round the neck by men in winter, 
and when in ' dress.' 

Before marriage a Chinese girl's hair is plaited in a queue, 
but on marriage it is done up into a curious shaped coiffure.. 



190 THINGS CHINESE. 

The ladies wear no bonnets or hats, neither do the common 
women as a rule, except those who are out in the sun and 
•exposed to the weather, their hair is combed and plastered 
with a gum, and, thus made up, forms a svifficient head 
covering in a hot climate ; but an endless variety is seen in 
this style of head-dress : now a modest set of protuberances 
•in connection Avith the tea-pot handle-like coiffure at the 
back of the head ; now enormous butterfly wings project 
from the side of the head, or lie closer to it; again back 
wings project to a greater or lesser degree ; and yet again 
various adjuncts are added to eke out the quantity of 
hair, or to raise it like a small horn on the head. In some 
places the styles differ in every bit of country-side. One 
of the best places the author has ever seen for noticing 
these is Swatow, where, in a group of from twenty to 
forty women, nearly a score of different coiffures were seen. 
The boat-girls in Macao, and some in Hongkong, go with a 
"bright coloured handkerchief over their heads, tied under 
their cliins. The Hakka women also often bind a cloth 
round the head, looking something like an old-fashioned 
bonnet. In Swatow and the surrounding country a number 
of different kinds of head cloths are worn by tlie women 
according to the districts they come from. The author saw 
a curious one in use at the district city of Tie Yeong, near 
Swatow. It was a long narrow cloth thrown over the head 
and the ends were brought round the face when its wearers 
wished to hide their countenances from the passers by. 
In winter a broad band, either plain or embroidered, is 
often bound across the forehead by women, and prevents 
that cold aching feeling which intense cold produces. The 
men wear a skull-cap of satin with a cord button of 
red or black on the top in winter, but go bare-headed in 
summer. Felt hats are likewise seen ; they have a turned 
up brim, and some of the better kind have gold thread on 
the edge ; their use is restricted to the lower classes. In very 
cold weather a peculiar headgear is worn by some. It 
-jconsists of a pointed cap, which, with a flap falling down 



DRESS. 191 

behind and buttoning under the chin, covers up not only the 
neck but the whole head with the exception of the face, little 
boys are often seen with these on, as well as some men and a 
few women. Large bamboo hats, nearly a yard in diameter, 
•effectually shed the rain off, and as effectually protect the head 
from the rays of the sun. Several other varieties of bamboo 
hats are worn, some by men alone; others by women alone; 
while others are patronised irrespective of tlie sex of the 
Avearer. In rainy weather the lower classes in the South, put 
on a cloak made of bamboo leaves sewn together, presenting 
a veritable Robinson Crusoe appearance; but in Swatow a 
similar one made of coir fibre is substituted, looking some- 
what like the capude palha, or straw cloaks, worn by the 
peasantry, in the northern provinces of Portugal. At such 
times labourers go bare-footed, as for that matter thev 
do at nearly all times; shop-keepers and others splash about 
through the mud and rain on shoes with wooden soles a 
couple of inches thick (for the usual felt sole acts as a sponge 
in wet weather), a poorer style consists of a ruder chump of 
Avood with a network of string for tlie toes. A still better 
class, such as official underlings, and some gentlemen, put 
on boots made especially for damp and wet, reaching half- 
way, or even further up towards the knees. Wooden clogs, 
Avith leather uppers, are used by Avomen and girls. 

We have already spoken of jackets, robes, Avaistcoats or 
sleeA^eless jackets, and close fitting ones. There are besides, 
double jackets or lined ones, and fur jackets. A dress-suit 
consists of a robe opening at the bottom of the centre line, 
both before and behind, Avith sleeves shaped like a horse's 
hoof, a jacket is Avorn over this, and satin boots Avith thick 
Avhite soles, a sash round the waist, and an official hat Avith a 
button at the top, are put on. 

Earrings are quite a part of Chinese female dress ; eA^ery 
Avoman and girl Avears them ; and so accustomed does one 
get to see them in a Avoman's ears, that it looks almost as 
queer to see a Chinese Avoman Avithout these indispensables, 
as it would to see an English lady going barefoot ; and a 



192 THINGS CHINESE. 

Chinese woman would feel as ashamed to appear in the 
one condition, as an English lady would in the other. The 
earrings differ in style in different parts of China, and there is 
as great a dissimilarity between them as there is between 
those of one country and another. Among the Hakkas, a com- 
mon earring is a silk tassel. The Foochow Avomen have enor- 
mous rings, several inches in diameter, in their ears. The 
Cantonese earring is often formed of two parts : the earring 
proper — a round metallic (gold, silver, or brass) ring, broad- 
ened out into a flat ornamental surface in front, into which a 
flat ring of jade, or other stone, or composition, is hung. 

Fashions in dress do change in China, but so slight and 
gradual are the changes- -except when some dynastic over- 
throw revolutionises everything — that to the foreigner na 
difference is visible, but to the initiated into these mysteries 
aa extremely gradual change is perceptible, so that, in the 
course of forty or fifty years, ladies' sleeves are noticed to be 
wider than before, and, in the course of a quarter of a century, 
quite a new style of dressing ladies' hair is seen. 

The style of dress, it should be noticed, is not quite the 
same in different parts of China. What has been writen above 
applies principally to the South of China, in the neighbourhood 
of Hongkong, Macao, and Canton : even in these neighbour- 
hoods the dress of the Hakkas is not quite the same as that 
of the Cantonese [see Article on Hakkas). The mode of doing 
up the hair by the women, the kind of earrings worn by 
them, as Avell as the dress itself, are so distinct as to mark 
anyone, at the first glance, as coming from some other part 
of China. The men's dress has, however, but little or 
nothing to differentiate it, the greatest exception being in 
the case of the Swatow and Hokkien men, who often wear a 
turbaUj Avhereas other Chinese are seldom seen with it. The 
short jackets of these same men are sometimes longer than 
.those in the extreme south. 

The colour of the clothing worn, also differs. White is 
•never seen as an oviter 2:arment on women in Canton or 



EARTHQUAKES. 193 

Hongkong, except to please Europeans. This colour being 
reserved alone for under-garments, in which, of course, a 
woman would be ashamed to appear in public. In Amoy, how- 
ever, this does not seem to be the rule, and in that part of the 
country bright red, and other colours are worn by young 
ladies, a thing which is never seen in Canton amongst 
respectable women. In Swatow white also is worn, but the 
young ladies do not appear to come out in such brilliant hues- 
as in Amoy. These may be taken as instances of the varia- 
tions in style of dress in China. 

Though the Chinese men go often in a state of semi- 
nudity, the women make up for it by a severe modesty in 
their dress. There is no exposure of their person, as there is 
in the evening dress amongst European ladies ; neither is 
tight-lacing a vice amongst the Chinese. They sedulously 
hide all the contours of the figure, and in fact tie down the 
breasts. 

EARTHQUAKES. — An earthquake is not a phenome- 
non often experienced by the foreign resident in China. Very 
slight shocks have been felt a few times in Hongkong, but 
so insignificant have they been as to be unknown to the 
majority till the next day's papers contained a notice of 
them ; but in some other parts of China they are not such a 
trivial matter. They are recorded as of frequent occurrence 
in Hainan; earthquakes in conjunction with storms, famine, 
and pestilence having materially decreased the population at 
one time ; but as a general rule earthquake shocks would 
appear to be infrequent in China, and not of serious import. 
We give a short, but unfortunately not a complete list, as the 
subject has not yet received the study and attention it merits. 

A.D. 1037. — A severe earthquake 'that afifected Honan and 
Shansi and caused the death of 22,000 people and the wounding and 
maiming of between 5 and 6,000 more.' 

A.D. 1295 — 1308. — During the latter years of this period 'severe 
earthquakes in T'ai-yuan and Ta-tung in Shansi. In the former 
town over 800 houses were thrown down and a large number of people 
were killed. Ta-tung however suffered still more severely. There 
5,000 houses were shattered into ruins and 2,000 people were buried 
beneath them.' 

L 



194 THINGS CHINESE. 

A.D. 1334 — Earthquakes, and also during the next few years. 

In the early days of the Ming dynasty (this dynasty lasted from 
A.D. 1368 to A.D. 1643), a 'terrible earthquake visited the plain of 
Chien-ch'ang. * * * The old city of Ning-yuan sank bodily into 
the ground, and gave place to the large lake which lies to the south- 
east of the present city.' 

A.D. 1662. — One in China, when 300,000 persons were buried 
in Peking alone. 

A.D. 1 73 1. — Another when 100,000 persons were swallowed up 
at Peking. 

A.D. 1847. — November 13th, an earthquake at Shanghai. 

A.D. 1850. — The city of Ning-yuan, in western China, already 
mentioned, was again ruined by an earthquake. 

A.D. 1852. — December i6th, there was a shock of some violence 
at Shanghai at 8.13 p.m., and another slight shock at 10 p.m. There 
were no serious effects. These were felt at Ningpo at 8.09 p.m., and 
three hours later. There were other shocks at Shanghai on two 
subsequent days. 

A.D. 1854. — A shock felt in Canton, and about the same year at 
Chin-kiang where people were thrown on their faces. 

A.D. 1867. — A sharp shock at Ningpo at a few minutes after 
10 a.m. on the 17th December. Bells were set ringing, clocks stopped, 
■chandeliers swayed and water in earthern jai's rippled violently. A 
slighter shock was felt at Shanghai. 

A.D. 1871, April nth. —A severe earthquake to the west of 
Sz-chuen, at about 11 a.m., at Bathang, when 'government offices, 
temples, granaries, store-houses, and fortilications, with all the 
■common dwellings,' were overthrown, and most of the inmates killed. 
Flames burst out in four places, and were beaten down on the 
i6th, but rumbling noises underground continued like distant thunder 
and the earth rocked and rolled. In about ten days the earth 
quieted. For several days before, the water had overflowed the 
■dykes, the earth cracked, and black fetid water spurted out. The 
region affected by this earthquake was over a circuit of four hundred 
miles, and it 'occurring simultaneously over the whole of this region'; 
2,298 people were killed. ' In some places steep hills split and sank 
into deep chasms, in others mounds on level plains became precipi- 
tous cliffs, and the roads and highways were rendered impassable 
by obstructions.' 

1874. — June 23rd, a slight shock in Hongkong. 

1890. — Five distinct shocks during the year in the province of 
Shansi ; the heaviest was in the spring, and upwards of a 100 persons 
were killed in it. On the 15th October two shocks were felt at 
Fenchow-fu. This year was exceptional. It is said that earthquake 
shocks are only felt once in 10 years in that province. 

1891. — April I2th or 13th, three shocks of earthquake felt during 
the day at Taiyuen-fu in Shansi. 



EARTHQUAKES. 195 

1S91. — April 17th, a severe earthquake shock occurred at Fen- 
chou-fu in Shansi at half-past six o'clock in the morning, the worst 
that has happened in that region within thirty years. A number of 
houses were thrown down in the city and suburbs, and some eight 
or ten persons were killed. There was a great destruction of houses 
in the villages. The shock extended at least 100 li in all directions. 
' It is somewhat surprising that more damage was not done, as the 
whole country rocked like a ship on a wave of the sea. The earth- 
quake lasted one minute only, but some of the houses that were 
shaken by it fell during the following afternoon. The people say 
that earthquakes are caused by a large fish, which wakes up after a 
sleep of some years and gives a flop.' 

1 89 1. — July 2 1st, an earthquake felt at the Peak and Kowloong 
at 6.40 a.m. 

1 891.- -August 3rd, a slight shock felt by a few residents at 
Hongkong at 2.10 p.m. 

1892. — April 22nd, a distinct and continuous series of shocks 
lasting for a few seconds in Hongkong, with lateral vibrations and a 
rumbling sound, but doing no damage ; also felt in a number of the 
other coast ports in China. 

1892. — July 2 1 St, a slight shock felt at the Peak and Kowloong 
at 6.40 a.m. 

1892. — July 28th, a heavy earthquake shock at Hoihow 'that 
shook the whole place, houses being seen and felt to stagger and 
shake in a most terrifying manner, "••■ "•■■ accompanied by a 

subterranean roar far louder than thunder. •■' * * It is said by 
.the natives that Hoihow has not been visited with a similar shock for 
a century : even a slight one is an unusual occurrence.' 

l892.-^August 4th, a slight shock in Hongkong. 

1892. — December l6th, a shock at 3 a.m. at Amoy, by which 
people were awakened, and lasting for several seconds. 

1893. — 29th August, an earthquake of great magnitude devastating 
an area of 9,000 square miles in the Tibetan district of Kada, border- 
ing the province of Sz Chuan. The Dalai Lama's Grand Monastery 
of Hueiyuan and 7 small Lamaserais were buried in ruins and 804 
houses, belonging to the native and Tibetan soldiers and their 
.families, met the same fate. 74 Lama priests and 137 Chinese and 
Tibetans were killed with a large proportion of wounded. 

1893. — October 17th, severe repeated shocks at Taipeh-fu in 
Formosa, and on the i6th a strong shock was felt in Amoy and 
Kulangsu at 2.30 a.m. 

1893. — December 8th, a severe shock at Foochow at 11. 10 p.m. 

1894. — June 20th, a sharp shock of earthquake felt in Amoy and 
Kulangsu at 6.30 or 6.45 a.m. ; a very slight shock had been noticed 
two days previously at about 2 p.m. Three houses were wrecked. 

1894. — August nth, there were slight shocks at Hongkong at 
.10.55 ^•'^'^- 'ind 1.20 p.m. 

L 2 



196 THINGS CHINESE. 

1895. — August 30th, earthquake shocks were felt in Hongkong,, 
Swatow, Waichow, and Haifung. The earthquake was severe at Swatow 
where it occurred at ten minutes to six p.m. It was preceded by an 
excessively hot day with a dull, oppressive feeling in the air, rain falling 
heavily just before. It lasted between fifteen and twenty seconds by 
one account, and two minutes by another ; a slight shock had been 
experienced about 3.30 p.m., a continuatioii of minor shocks followed 
it as well, up until 3.15 a.m. on Saturday. Considerable damage was 
done on shore to native property, and a little to foreign in the way of 
cracked walls and ceilings. The vessels in harbour were shaken from 
truck to keelson, the colour of the water in the river was changed 
from blue to brown by the agitation of the mud, and the sea had a 
very confused appearance south of the Lamocks. The direction was 
from E. to W. It was the severest shock ever felt in Swatow. It 
was thus described in Hongkong: — 'Horizontal vibration between 
E. and W. roughly ; there was no vertical motion, and ha<«dly any 
perceptable travelling direction. The first distinct oscillation was- 
felt a minute or so before a quarter to six, and lasted about 30' 
seconds. Fainter tremors were felt for some minutes afterwards ; 
and another distinct shock occurred about 1 1.30 p.m.' Persons sitting 
or lying down felt it plainly, and it interfered a little with writing. 
It was felt most in high buildings. Two gentlemen in upper floors of 
the Hongkong Hotel felt dizzy and thought the place was coming 
down. Bottles and glasses rattled in some buildings. A coolie 
sitting on the pavement in the streets rushed into the roadway 
shouting that the houses were falling.' 

1895 — August — October. Earthquake shocks at Kit Yeung, 30^ 
miles from Swatow from the 30th August till nth of October 'the* 
country round for eighteen miles seeming to be within the district of 
disturbance.' Two small shocks were felt towards the end of Septem- 
ber at Swatow, but no damage was done. A different tale, however, 
came from Tsing Hai City in the Chao Chow Prefecture, where 
there were several earthquake shocks with disastrous consequences^, 
more than a hundred houses falling and about forty persons being 
killed by their collapse, the shocks in Kit Yeung being slight ini 
comparison. 

1896. — July 22nd. A pretty severe shock at Tientsin about 
8.52 p.m. 'A tremor, accompained by a rumbling or grating noise as- 
if a large quantity of bricks had been shot from carts, was, after an 
interval of two seconds, followed by a very distinct earth oscillation 
which lasted for two or three seconds. * "' '■■■' " The most severe 
shock that has been felt at Tientsin since 1888."' 

1 89S. — November 1 2th. A shock of earthquake felt in the city of 
Shi'ii Hing (about 70 or 80 miles from Canton) and the surrounding; 
villages. Houses, windows, furniture, and hanging lamps were seen 
shaking with a creaking noice as if they were going to fall down ; and; 
people were startled from their sleep by a phenomenon which ihey 
had never experienced before. The elders of the village made- 
enquiries as to whether it portended good or evil. 



EDUCATION. 197 

EDUCATION.— ^\ie Chinese owe everything to their 
rsystem of education. It is this which, amidst all the changes 
of dynasty, has kept them a nation ; it is this which has knit 
together the extremes of this vast land, and has caused the 
same aspirations to rise, and the same thoughts to course, 
through people differing in vernacular, and in many customs 
and habits ; it is this that has been the conqueror of the 
conquering hosts that have swept over the land, and set up 
an alien dynasty more than once in her history. 

f^e Chinese child is heavily handicapped when he 
commences his educational course, for ' the language of the 
fireside is not the language of the books ; ' nor has he all the 
auxiliary aids which first launch a child on the sea of 
'learning, and make the acquisition of knowledge a pleasure, 
in happy Western homes, with the present-day beautifully 
illustrated books, and language simplified to encourage the 
youthful beginner : there is no ' Reading Made Easy,' no 
•Laugh and Learn,' no 'Peep of Day,' nor any of the other 
numerous books, which are the delight of the little ones 
amongst us. Though one often sees a bright intelligent 
infant among the Chinese, the absence of all aids, similar iu 
their design to those mentioned above, must be a terrible want 
to the poor little Celestial. Were the first book put into the 
youngster's hands named ' Reading Made Difficult ' it might 
then convey some idea of the nature of its contents ; for, 
barring the fact that it is in rhyme and in lines of three 
words each, there is nothing in it to smooth the rough path 
for little feet. It commences with a statement that might 
tax all the mental powers of a philosopher to fathom, to 
wit : — ' Men at their birth are by nature radically good ' ; after 
this tough introduction, instances are adduced of youthful 
learning and precocity, all tending to show the necessity of 
■education. Categories of the numerical series, of which the 
Chinese are so fond, follow, such for example as the three 
powers — heaven, earth, and man ; the five cardinal virtues ; 
and sijf kinds of grain. A list of books to be learned is 
next enumerated, followed by an epitome of Chinese history 



198 THINGS CHINESE. 

in the tersest form possible ; and the book ends with what,, 
if it were only in an intelligible form for the boy, would 
be the most interesting part of all, viz. : — instances of the 
pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, which are used to 
goad the future aspirant for literary fame on his course. 

At first scarcely anything he reads is understood by him, 
but he has to learn it off by heart, so as to say it without 
a single error. The first is, of course, a mistake ; the second 
is not ; for experience shows that such a metliod is the best 
for learning Chinese. The author, himself, when a boy, 
learned the first book and others in this way, so as to be able 
to repeat long screeds of them by heart, and later years have 
only deepened the impression that, given time to do so, this 
is the only way to learn Chinese thoroughly. In fact, if we 
Westerners were not always in such a hurry, and so pressed 
for time, it would prove an excellent plan in the first stages 
of learning a European language ; the author has tried it 
with French and found it produced excellent results. But to 
return to our Chinese boy in the midst of his difficulties. 
These may perhaps be better appreciated by the foreign 
reader from the following illustration : — We remember 
readyig of a school for teaching the English language to 
Gaelic-speaking boys. The schoolmaster ordered the scholars 
to read from one of their English lesson-books, which they 
did beautifully, but Avhen an English visitor began to- 
question them on what they had read, he found blank faces 
staring at him in amazement, and not a single reply could he 
get. The master then informed him that the boys had only 
been taught to read English, not to speak it ; their pronun- 
ciation was perfect, but not a word did they understand of 
what they had read. Our Chinese boy is in pretty much the 
same plight at first; for four or five years he learns the 
names of the Chinese characters, but the great majority of 
them are meaningless signs to him. Book after book has 
he to get up in this wearisome manner, and page after page 
of copy-book characters has he to trace in a listless round, 
which knows no Sunday, nor Wednesday, nor Saturday half- 



EDUCATION. 19^ 

holiday : a Chinese school is for work and not play ; play 
is considered a waste of time, and, as such, to be discouraged 
as much as possible ; no variety of studies ; nothing to break 
the monotony from daylight till dark, only enough time 
to take meals being allowed. Verily it is no wonder that 
the Chinese school-boy appears heavy and dull, grave and 
dignified, and that he has his company manners always at 
hand, appearing the pink of propriety like all the fossilised 
youngsters he has read about. At last a little light is 
allowed to glint into this mental darkness, for he is initiated 
into the mysteries and privileges of knowing what the 
thousands of seemingly arbitrary signs mean. And here is 
the reason why, though nearly all Chinese (at least in the 
more civilised parts of the empire) can read to a greater or 
lesser extent, so many of them understand but little of what 
they read ; for many of them are unable from poverty to 
pursue their course of education beyond the initial stage. 
Many of them are in the position of Milton's daughters : 
the blind poet taught them to read Latin to him — simply 
to read it, without a knowledge of what it meant; and the- 
Chinese that is spoken in every-day life is nearly as different 
from much of that contained in the books, as a dead language 
is from a living one. 

There is no class system in Chinese schools ; each boy 
forms a class by himself: there are as many classes as there 
are boys. A dull scholar is thus not drawn on faster than 
he is able to go by the quicker boys, nor do the brighter 
pupils have a drag on their progress in the persons of the 
dull ones. As each boy learns his lesson he goes up to say 
it, the long school hours also making it necessary for him to 
learn the greater part, if not all, of his work in school-time. 
A Chinese school makes itself heard long before it is seen : a 
confused babel of sounds warns you of your approach to 
it ; for each boy is learning his task off" by heart, repeating 
it over and over again, till fixed in the memory, in a loud 
sing-song tone of voice ; the effect of thirty or forty boys 
(for few schools are fortunately much larger than that) all 



200 THINGS CHINESE. 

doing their best to out-voice each other in this maimer, 
being better imagined than described, and, once heard, never 
forgotten. In England, schoofe are a nuisance to their 
neighbours at play-time; there is no play-time in Chinese 
schools — they are, on the contrary, a nuisance Avhen the boys 
are at their lessons. 

If a boy's studies are continued, he is taught, as we 
have said, the translation of this wonderfully recondite 
literary style into more intelligible language. Besides this, 
the following ■subjects find a place in the curriculum : com- 
position, where rules of grammar are conspicuous by their 
absence, and position is everything, and precedent or 
ancient usage establishes the proper collocation of words. 
Intimately connected with this is the construction of 
antithetical sentences, where meaning, word, and phrase, as 
Avell as tone, are matched together with wonderful care, 
precision, and musical rhythm. One or two other forms 
of composition are also taught, and the scholar learns the 
art of letter writing, where almost every possible idea is 
already provided for in cut and dried expressions redolent 
with the flowers of allusion, classic lore, and fable. This is 
a most important branch of Chinese education and requires 
special study. We ourselves were present at a meeting 
at which a letter was read from a gentleman, expressing 
his regret at not being able to be present, and containing 
good wishes for the members and the Society to which 
they belonged. Such a letter in English would require 
no explanation to an English audience, but the Chinese 
secretary of this Society considered it necessary to explain 
its contents to the members present, though they Avere 
all fairly well educated in Chinese. Belles-lettres also 
take a place in the more extended course of study. A 
collection from ancient authors, forming a course of Chinese 
literature, is placed in the hands of the student ; a smatter- 
ing of Chinese history, valuable for the sake of allusions 
it places at a writer's disposal, is acquired ; artificial verse- 
making claims a share of attention ; and the composition of 



EDUCATION. 201 

those wonderful essays, where the reasoning proceeds in a 
circle, and ends where it began, which are valuable as pre- 
paring the student for the Civil Service examinations ; this 
last being the final stage for which all the preceding has 
been preparatory ; this, the goal which has necessitated all 
the arduous toil, with, in the event of success, its resultant 
office-holding. [See Article on Examinations.) 

The whole of the classics (the Four Books and the Five 
Classics) are mastered, as well as the commentaries thereon 
in the school and collegiate course, extending over some 
years. It will thus be seen that geography, arithmetic, 
algebra, mathematics, and all branches of science, are utterly 
unknown in a Chinese educational course. What then is 
the result of the whole thing ? Not the acquisition of 
knowledge, or the training of the mind, so much as the 
turning out of successful essayists ; a marvellous training of 
the memory, and the extraordinary development of the 
imitative faculty — these two at the expense of everything 
else — no originality, no scope for individuality ; the produc- 
tion of literary machines, the manufacture of mental type- 
writers, where the stereotyped forms of antiquity are repro- 
duced with but scant variety. It speaks well f(jr the Chinese 
nation, that, with all this tight lacing of healthy aspirations, 
with all this binding of the feet, of progress, it has been 
impossible to entirely curb all individuality, to check all 
variety. It has been well said that though this system 'has 
considerable educative value ' it yet Mimits the mental and 
moral vision to the horizon which confined the mind of 
Confucius twenty-four centuries ago, cramps the intellect? 
stunts the groAVth of moral feeling, and bends the will into 
an antagonism to everything non-Chinese.' It has also 
been stated with truth that, "the vast majority of the educated 
men in China do not know to this day what is the meaning 
of the most common terms in our educational vocabulary, 
and much less do they know the use and value of the things 
-designated, or how they are to be studied.' 



202 THINGS CHINESE. 

China has no school-boards, nor even anything in the- 
place of the National and British schools in England. 
Schools are opened by masters to gain their living, or 
established by the gentry, or one tutor is employed by 
several families to conduct a private school for their children,, 
while colleges, or, strictly speaking, higher schools, established 
on pretty much the same principles, abound in all cities. 

We have thus far only mentioned boys, and we might 
close without any reference to girls; for the attitude of the 
nation, as a whole, with regard to the education of this sex, 
is almost that of complete neglect. Notwithstanding this, 
not a few instances are adduced in Chinese history of blue- 
stockings; and at the present day, in some parts of China 
at least, a very small minority of the girls either manage to 
pick up such a smattering of the characters as to be able 
to read cheap novels, or, very rarely, have the advantage 
of a teacher provided by their parents, who are stimulated 
to give them an education, in some cases by the example 
of the mission schools. From personal contact with 
thousands of natives in the course of his official duties,, 
the writer is able to say that it is the rarest thing that a 
woman is able to sign her own name, and when that is 
laboriously accomplished, it is perhaps all that she can write. 
Whereas, on the other hand, a preponderating majority of 
men in the extreme south of China, in the cities at alL 
events, are able to sign their names. To state it broadly : 
it is a great exception if a woman can sign her name, while 
it is an exception if a man cannot. 

It is very hard to form an estimate as to the number of 
men who can not only read, but mentally understand what 
they read. The proportion differs in different parts of the 
empire, and even in the same part, it will vary greatly in 
town and country. Dr. Martin, of Peking, estimates it at 
one in twenty. An account of education in China would 
not be complete without a closing allusion to the dawn of 
better days. Mission schools and colleges are to be found 
at the different centres, and these have done a good and 



EDUCATION. 203 

appreciable work ; there are likewise the schools in 
Hongkong, under the fostering care of the British Colonial 
Government ; and, what is more encouraging still, there 
are, here and there at several important centres, either 
schools established, more or less under the auspices of the 
Chinese Government, such as the T'ung Wan Kwen, at 
Peking and Canton, where a thorouglily good training is 
given in English ; or again, such establishments as naval 
and other colleges, in connection with arsenals, where 
a technical education is imparted ; and, lastly, a most 
significant fact, at one of the provincial examinations in the 
City of Wu-chang, the examinees were asked to give a 
comparison between ancient and modern mathematical 
methods, the former being native, and the latter foreign; 
other centres of examination have taken the same subject 
up, doubtless in consequence of the decree issued some seven 
years ago by which the Literary Chancellors of the provinces 
were ordered 'to admit candidates to a competition in 
Mathematics at each annual examination for the first degree.' 
If successful, these were to undergo a special examination at 
Peking, in Physics, Applied Mathematics, Practical Mechanics, 
Naval and Military Tactics, Gunnery and Torpedo Practice, 
or, instead of these, in International Law, Political History, 
&c. * If successful they shall be admitted to competition for 
the second degree in Peking, which shall be conferred in the 
ratio of one to twenty, the total not to exceed three in one 
year. Those who obtain the second degree may compete 
for the third.' [See Article on Examinations.) As an 
instance of this introduction of a new subject in the stereo- 
typed Chinese examination the following will be found 
interesting : — 

In Western Shantung in the Tung Ch'ang Prefecture, two 
problems were propounded at the examination for the hsiu ts'ai degree 
in 1892, the first, or B. A., 'one of which asked for the superficial 
area of a globe eighteen inches in diameter. The other was of a 
more complicated character, and adapted to fit the aspirants for the 
post of Grain Commissioner. Problem.— If eight thousand piculs 
of rice are canied at thirteen tael. cents per picul, and if the freight is 
paid in rice at taels two and a half per picul, how much rice is 
expended for the freight ? It is said that this question was propounded 



201 THINGS CHINESE. 

to not less than ten thousand students in the Tung Ch'ao Prefecture 
and that only one man tried to give any answer at all, and he was 
snubbed by the Chancellor for an ignorant pretender. Yet if any one 
could have given the correct answer which a western lad of ten years 
would be ashamed not to be able to do in three minutes, he would 
probably have been passed on that account ! The result, as often 
happens in such cases, has been a great increase in the number of 
applicants to the foreigner for a formula which will evolve 

correct answers. The absurdity of proposing problems in regard to the 
nature of which students have had no opportunity of learning must be 
evident to the Chancellor as to the candidates. But by another three 
years, some mathematical books will have probably been pored over 
not in vain.' 

Another hopeful sign is the resumption of the plan for 

sending students to western lands to prosecute their studies 

in the modern centres of learning and thought. The young 

Emperor himself began the study of English some years since. 

'The Tsung-li Yamen have promulgated [1896] a verbal edict 
of the Emperor to the provincial authorities, commanding that the 
study of foreign mathematics and the various branches of poly- 
technical science shall from henceforth be compulsory in all colleges of 
the country. Candidates at the literary examinations will now have 
to qualify in at least one of the latter subjects, while mathematics 
must be one of the standing subjects at these competitions for literary 
degrees.' 

This gradual progress in the betterment of this wonderful 
system of examinations was followed by orders from the 
Emperor for a radical change, only to be again upset by the 
reactionary measures of the Empress Dowager. This is all 
a matter of history of the year 1898. 

Boohx reeommcnded. — Martin's ' Han Lin Papers.' Also see Extract 
from a paper by Rev. J. C. Fertruson in the 'Hongkong Daily Press' of the 
7th of January, 181t2. Most of the text books on China also contain more 
or less full accounts of the Examination system of China. 

EMBEOI DEBT. —The Chinese are famous for their 
skill in embroidery. Men and women are both employed in 
the production of numerous articles for home consumption, 
as well as for exportation. Official robes for Mandarins and 
their wives ; petticoats for ladies ; purses for rich and poor ; 
shoes for men and women with natural feet, as well as for 
those with golden lilies — -the cramped-up deformities which 
ilo an imperfect duty in place of the natural growth ; caps 
for men and boys; adjuncts of dress, such as spectacle- 
cases and numerous other articles are all adorned and 



EMBROIDEUY. 205 

ornamented with embroidery. Banners, altar-clotlis, the 
gorgeous robes donned by tlie ragged boys in a procession, 
are all rich with it. 

'There are many styles with thread, braid, or floss, and 
an infinite variety in the quality, pattern, and beauty of the 
work.' The • motives ' are of the usual style of Chinese 
art work — heavy bats, long convoluted dragons, splendid 
phoenixes, geometrical patterns, insignia of the genii, fruit, 
flowers, and butterflies; these are blended together in a 
galaxy of richest colours or studded in more diff'use splendour 
on glowing backgrounds of cerulean blue or emerald green, 
or numerous other shades in which the gorgeous East 
delights to clothe itself But it should be mentioned that, 
owing to the introduction of aniline colours, the loveliness 
has, in a great measure, departed, and harmony of tint 
almost entirely, from the needlework of the present day. 

Girls are taught to embroider as an accomplishment 
and a necessary duty, for their own tiny shoes are worked by 
themselves, and not bought ready-made in the shops, Avhile 
many a woman, seated in the narrow street at the door of 
her humble dwelling, adds to the slender means of her family 
by her skill in fancy work of this description. Peddlers go 
through the streets whirling a small rattle, and, from the 
stock-in-trade of these peripatetic dealers, the domestic stocks 
of silk for embroidery are generally replenished. Most lovely 
shades of the finest floss silk, running through, the whole 
gamut of the richest colours, are displayed in the numerous 
small drawers of these itinerant merchants, while gold and 
silver thread are also for disposal, to be added to the needle- 
work to enhance its beauty. 

Numbers of men are employed in the production of 
shawls, table-covers, and fire-screens for exportation. The 
latter are made 'of divers colours of needle-work on both 
sides,' the screen at which the men work being set upright 
between the two who are producing the piece, and the needle 
pushed through from one man to the other alternately, and 
thus the same pattern is produced on both front and back. 



-206 THINGS CHINESE. 

Time is of no consequence when effect aud beauty are to be 
the results, while patience and perseverance are the two 
principal factors employed without stint by the Chinese in 
all their industrial arts, nor are they absent in the production 
of embroidery. It is said that, in a spectacle-case, six inches 
by two, there will sometimes be not less than 20.000 stitches; 
and theatrical costumes, mandarin robes, and ladies' dresses 
will take ten or twelve women four or five years constant 
work to finish. Under such conditions it will be readily seen 
that fashions cannot change from year to year. ' Wall hang- 
ings made of such work are very costly. In Canton where it 
is carried to its highest development, they have frequently 
brought several thousand dollars. Nevertheless such extra 
fine work is rare. The buying public demand good, effective 
tableaux at prices not over $100 each and the supply 
naturally equals the demand.' 

Large stores of old embroidery are to be found in the 
pawn-shops of Chinese cities ; nor are the robes, there to be 
seen, all of modern make, but some splendid specimens of a 
style no longer in fashion, or ordinarily procurable, are 
occasionally met with. Many foreign ladies who would not 
touch a Chinaman's clothes yet buy these old and soiled 
robes, and diflferent articles of dress worn by generations of 
Chinese, and utilise the embroidered pieces in ornamenting 
cushions, chairbacks, &c. 

These may appear cheap, and they are certainly 
"'nasty,' yet it is the fashion in this least suitable climate 
to drape the furniture and walls of drawing-rooms with the 
equivalent of what a greasy old-clothes man at home carries 
off" in his bag. How much more sensible it would be if 
ladies sought after specimens of the Art made years ago for 
Art's sake, two of which stand out in the writer's memory 
as most excellent of their kind. Both were circular and 
about a foot in diameter; one representing a white eagle 
perched on the rugged branch of a pine tree, with a stanza 
in beautiful characters in a column on one side, and so 



EMBROIDERY. 207 

exquisite was the work it was almost impossible to discover 
that they were not written with a brush and the richest 
ink. Every feather of the bird was articulated, every needle 
of the pine was given in natural shades. The other, probably 
more interesting, was a dancing female figure, her robes and 
ribbons fluttering in the air, whilst all manner of flowers 
strewed the ground, a marvel of delicate work and refined 
colouring. But, alas ! the features of this Nymph or God- 
dess were, as is not unusual, painted upon the satin ground, 
and the artist was not in touch with the embroiderers. The 
face was quite one-fifth of the whole figure and very un- 
beautiful, with, shocking to relate, a nose of Bardolphian 
proportion impossible in nature and execrable in Art, but in 
every other resp^sct this work was a masterpiece. 

'Embroideries, ancient and modern, are always in demand 
among Orientals, the former being much more expensive. Many- 
skilful artisans take advantage of this fact and by an accurate 
imitation of colours faded by age and also by secret chemical 
treatment turn out embroideries which seem worn with age. The 
counterfeits are not easily detected. Even when they are, the 
discovery is to the benefit of the dealer and not the collector. A 
bogus antique of this class was recently sold in Hongkong for $500 
for which two weeks previously the dealer had paid $15 to the maker. 
As a matter of fact, modern embroideries in China are just as good 
as ancient, so that it is folly to pay ten times for one picture what 
you might for a second of equal merit and beauty. This is especially 
true when a fine embroidery is to be exposed in the drawing-room of 
a house which uses coal and gas. "'' * So ruinous are the gases 

produced bv the combustion of both coal and illuminating gas that 
the only safe rule is to frame embroideries air-tight between glass 
plates. Thus protected they will retain their brilliancy unimpaired, 
where left exposed they become dull and dingy in a few years.' 

There are a number of diflerent stitches employed. In 
one a fine raised effect is produced by winding the thread 
round the needle and then taking the stitch. No one, as far 
as we are aware, has made a special study of this subject, 
and though we have made a point of enquiring of those 
interested in Chinese embroideries as to the stitches, we 
must confess we have not yet penetrated to the inner arcana 
of their mysteries, but must perforce be content with stand- 
ing on the threshold, and admiring the skill of the Chinese 
in producing such marvellous fantasies of colour. 



208 THINGS CHINESE. 

ENGLISH FROM CHINESE PENS.— To the Chinese 
the acquisition of our language is a terrible task ; nearly, if 
not quite, as appalling to contemplate as the idea of learning 
Chinese is to the average Englishman. To the majority who 
undertake it, time and money are of more importance than 
a thorough knowledge of the subject, and * maskee, can do ' 
is the motto of the tyro who thereupon proceeds to inflict 
his outrageous attempts at writing English on the English- 
man, with generally most ludicrous results. 

Perhaps Wan Chi wishes some favour from you, and 
as an introduction, he sends you his English calling-card 
with an invitation on it as follows : — 

Mr. Wax Chi 

Requests the pleasure of Mr. William Jones for a Dinner party 
at the Chinese Hotel (Hang Fa Lau), Queen's road central, to- 
morrow at 6 P.m. 

Hongkong, 17th October 1892. 
1st top floor. 

Again here is a business notice : — 
EXPRESS. 

NOTICE. 

We beg to inform, Gentlemen, all of you that we have 
commenced business of establishing a new Printing Office hern as a 
substitution for the Printing Office of T. S. Marchmont but we have 
been selected with best arrangement of new and approved Machine 
for quickness of improvement. 

Expresses, Bills, Programmes, and any kind of Joping and 
Stationery, that we have choose too with great care a department of 
fashionable, current and suitable calon's Type for printing. We beg 
leave to inform, Gentlemen, as my own experience as a printer enable 
us to forward the most approved order as cheaply as any of the long 
established printer here. We request every confidence trust by all of 
your Company and we shall be glad to give all of you the satisfaction 
of printing, but we hope earnestly, may all your Company prepared 
orders to bestow on our printing department and we having referred 
already to all of your Factory the perfected and completed business 
of our preparation. 

N. B. Hoping sincerely all of your Company will see no objection 
to this notice. 

A Shang Printing Press. 

Po Man Tap, John. 
Shau Chow, January, 1893. 



ENGLl^fl FROM CirmESE PEXS. 209 

It is to be feared that if Po Man Tap, John succoedccl 
in commencing the ' business of establishinjT a new Printin<T^ 
Office hern as a substitution ' for the former one that his 
compositors would not be able to ' give * * * the 
satisfaction of printing ' in any better style than the follow- 
ing which the Chinese printer who set it up doubtlcsa 
thought was perfect : — 

EXCELSIOR. 

The shades of night were falling fast, as through. An alpine 
village passed a youth, who how, mid snow and ice, a banner, with 
the Strang device. 

EXCELSIOR. 

His brow was sad ; his eye beakers. Flashed like a falcion 
from its sheath, and like a silver clarion bung. The accents of that 
unknown tongue, 

EXCELSIOR. 

In happy homes he saw the light bright. Of household fires 
gleam warm and abouce, the spectral glaciers shone, and from his 
lips exaped a green. 

EXCELSIOR. 

" Try not the pass ! " the old man said ; " Dark lowers the 
tempest overhead. The roanug tarrent is deep and wide " and loud 
that clarion voice replied, 

EXCELSIOR. 

" O shay " the marden said " and rest " Thy weary head upon 
my breast ! " a tear stood in his bright blue eye. But still he answered 
with a sight. 

EXCELSIOR. 

" Beware the pine-tree's withered branch Beware the awful 
aralanche ! " This was the peasant's lass Good night, a voice replied, 
far up the height. 

EXCELSIOR. 

At break of day, as heavenward The pions monks of Saint 
Bernard Uttered the aft repeated prayer, a voice cried through the 
startled air. 

EXCELSIOR. 

A traveller, by the faithful hound. Half-baried in the snow was 
found, still grasping in his hand of ice, That hammer with the strange 
device. 

EXCELSIOR. 

There in the twilight cold and gray, Tepelers, but beautiful, he 
lay, and from the sky, serene and far, a voice fell, like a falling star. 

M 



210 THINGS CHINESE. 

EXCELSIOR. 

Tradesmen's bills are very amusing, so utterly regardless are 
they of spelling and plurals ; you are charged for : — 

1 doz. Table Knife. 2 lbs. funch plum. 
3 large cup and saucers. \ doz. Egg cup. 

3 Eggs cups. 2 pieces plate. 

2 lbs. Dried Apple. i Pen Glass. 

Or has your tradesman given your wife a bad article by mistake, 
he may write her a letter like the following : — 
Mrs. W. S.MITH. 

Madam, 

I am very sorry these ball which I give you the another 
day was new & has not been play before I do not know why should 
broked so I sent another one not charge to obliged for you only & I 
got all goods from Ingland I will try better nextime & obliges. 

Your Faithfully 

YAN LOI. 

Our shoemaker knows but little of leggings and describes 

them in his bill as ' armorial articles for the legs.' 

Hei-e is a notice that we received on a torn scrap of 

paper from our washerman, 

Sir, 

Now, your cloths is much larger than before ; will you be 
candly give me @ $2.50 per cent. 

Your trily, 

WO SHING, 

Washerman. 

The folloAving will explain itself and is of higher order 

•of production than the last. 

Thomkins Simpson & Co. 

April 19th, 1892. 
To John Brown Esq. 

Dear Sir. 

Our manager Mr. White gave me your note and the man 
you recommended and I will do some things for him in the future at 
present we have enough of men at work but we will increase the 
coolies by next month if the weather will be hot enough to use of 
jiiore of our ice. So I have tell him to come to see me by next 
jnonth. I think I may use him. 

I am Sir, 

Your ob. Servant, 

YEUK MAN HING. 
Compradore of ThoinHns Simpson & Co. 



ENGLISH FROM CHINESE PENS. 211 

The orisfinal is not ice but we do not intend to give 
away our correspondent : so for the same reason we have 
altered the names appearing in the original documents we 
have reproduced in tliis article. 

Replete as the Chinese language is with terms of direct and 
indirect address graduated to different degrees of position and 
rank, the native feels the want of such terms in the English 
language and supplies the deficiency to the best of his ability. 
Our English officials receive letters and petitions which 
confer such an exalted status on them as they never hoped 
to attain. One complaint about a subordinate officer ad- 
dressed to a higher official, after stating the subject of 
grievance, goes on to say, * should the business at the present 
time be not so dull, I shall not trouble your majesty' &c., 
&c. 

Another letter commences, ' Most Noble Sir.' 

The Chinese lad is not behind his European or American 
confrere when he commences to describe, in his own unique 
and expressive language, ideas which appear tame and com- 
monplace when translated and transcribed in the language 
of his elders. A Chinese youth, writing on the Emperor of 
•China taking up the study of English, remarks : — ' I am 
pleased to hear that our Emperor is studying English — it 
will enable him to govern move neatly,' while another de- 
scribed the usual light refreshment at a clerical meeting as an 
* Ecclesiastical carousal.' 

But confusion gets worse confounded when our half- 
instructed Chinese takes the role of a preceptor upon him 
and proceeds to teach his compatriots English as he fancies 
it is spoken ; then it is veritably a barbarian lingo. The 
following sentences are from a book with that object in. 
view : — 

'I cannot Chinese speak.' 'To do good virtues become rich and 
know.' ' Diligent learn of English words no difficult.' ' He himself 
no have got.' 'Why you cannot want mistake.' ' Fear inside have 
little false.' 'Run come too much refuge.' 'Can do biting.' 'Ac- 
comulate bliss.' 'Accomulate many, confidentor, etc' 

M 2 



212 THINGS CHINESE. 

Many of the attempts, however, of our own fellow- 
countrymen to speak Chinese (for but few of them are ever 
able to write it) might call forth as much harmless merriment 
from John Chinaman as his attempts to write our difficult 
language produce in us. 

Many of the Chinese in the neighbourhood of Hong 
Kong and the Treaty Ports have evinced a great desire to 
learn English, as the Celestial is shrewd enough to see that 
tlie potentialites of wealth are present in a knowledge of the 
foreigner's tongue ; but of late years the desire has spread, 
and the Chinese Government itself has taken the movement 
under its fostering care. As long ago even as 1898— 

'The Peking Government •••■ * issued instructions to the 

various Viceroys and Governors of the Empire to estabhsh schools 
for the teaching of the English language and Wastern sciences ia all 
the principal cities of the country. According to the wording of one 
clause in the General Instructions, the reason for this was that China, in 
order to keep herself on terms of equality and in touch with the Great 
Powers of Europe, '' must educate the masses and encourage inventive 
genius and foreign learning amongst her people, together with that, 
love for country and home and that devoted patriotism so con- 
spicuously ingrained in the hearts of those who have studied such, 
languages and sciences,'' etc' 

The sovereign lias set the example to his subjects by 
himself taking lessons in English, in his palace. 

ETIQUETTE. — The Chinese have an elaborate system 
of etiquette, which is most punctiliously observed on state 
occasions and at festivals, and on the whole there is more 
polish and outward politeness than is common with English 
or Americans ; it approaches more to the French style. The- 
suavity of manner and urbanity with Avhich common street 
coolies address one another, and even the beggars, is most 
noticeable, and the graciousness with which the boat-women 
accost each other when shouting orders and requests to 
different craft in the intricate navigation of the crowded 
lixers, is most pleasant to hear. The like is never 
seen in the West, though, at the same time should 
a quarrel arise, the choicest 'Billingsgate' and a rare 
collection of obscene epithets is employed, these latter 



ETIQUETTE. 2VS 

taking the place of profane oaths in the West. We cannot 
call it with mock, because it is with real, solemnity that 
young John Chinaman copies his ekiers in his ceremonious 
observances, especially in his bows at New Year's time, 
performed with all the gravity of an old man with the weiglit 
of many years on his shoulders, and the full sense of the 
responsibility of a due and right performance of all the rules 
of etiquette. 

Chinese etiquette has many points quite different from 
English, as the following examples will show : — - 

Scene. — A breakfast table at which is seated a new 
arrival who has not yet spent a winter in Hongkong. Enter 
the boy, his shaven pate graced with the usual Chinese 
winter skull-cap. 

Tlie foreigner loquitur : — ' A-sam ! What foh you puttee 
on that piecee cap come waitea table ? That no b'loug 
plopah ; no b'long polite ! ' 

Answer hy A-sam — ' ! that b'long numbah one plopah, 

numbah one polite. S'pose you see ]\listah 's boy, he hab 

got cap all same same.' 

^lore than forty years ago a party of six young 
Englishmen went out for an excursion in the country in the 
neighbourhood of one of the Treaty Ports. They were 
entirely ignorant of China etiquette and custom, and while 
walking along one of the narrow paths at the side of a paddy- 
field, they met an old man carrying a load, whom they thought 
very rudely insisted on the path being given up to him 
and his burden, until he had passed with it. They pushed 
him out of the way, and struck him Avith their sticks for 
his rudeiiess, entirely unaware that they were the offenders, 
and gross offenders too. The path being narrow and there 
being no room for the encumbered and the unencumbered to 
pass at the same time, the Chinese, with commendable com- 
mon sense allow the burden-bearer in such cases, the right- 
of way, while the unencumbered, Avho can easily step on oft 
the way, do so ; those carrying a lighter weiglit make way for 



214 THINGS CHINESE. 

the more heavily laden, as for instance, one man bearing a. 
burden Avill step out of the way for two men carrying a sedan- 
chair. In this case the foreigners were further guilty of dis- 
respect to an old man, whom the Chinese reverence — the old 
man also being an elder of the neighbouring village, further 
increased the offence. The villagers, indignant at the insult, 
rose, took the young Englishmen into custody, and avenged, 
their wrongs by putting them to death, after some days of 
imprisonment. 

The Chinese are very fond of sending presents as 
acknowledgements of favours received. They often consist 
of a multitude of different articles of tasty food, fruit, or tea, 
&c., and when received from a native, who knows nothing of 
foreign customs, a selection is only intended to be made by 
the receiver. An acquaintance of ours was in the habit of 
keeping the whole assortment, no doubt to the disgust of the 
sender, who also, doubtless, formed a very low opinion of 
the ffreed and rudeness of foreis^ners. 

We here give a few unwritten rules of Chinese etiquette,, 
which will serve to give an insight into the subject : — - 

Standing. — In standing, stand at attention with or 
without the heels touching each other, and the hands down 
at the sides. Do not stand at ease with one foot placed at 
right angles to the other ; nor with arms akimbo. In talking 
to a man in a position superior to yours (such as a high 
official, while you are a lower one), do not keep your eyes- 
fixed on his, but let them rest on the button on the lapel of 
his coat at his left breast, only occasionally raising them to 
his face. 

Entering a room. — In entering a room with a number 
of persons seated in it, do not bow to each separately ; but 
give a grave bow first to the right, then to the left. If a 
particular friend of yours happens to be in the company he is 
at liberty to advance two steps towards you, and you, in like 
manner, may advance two steps further into the room, each, 
then saluting the other with clasped hands and a bow. 



ETIQUETTE. 215 

Sitting down. — The left hand is the phice of honour. It 
is given to the guest, and the host takes the right ; but the 
greatest caution is necessary, in sitting down, not to do so 
before your guest ; and if either should got up, or even rise 
slightly, the other must follow suit at once. It is most 
amusing to see how Chinese visitors bob up and down at the 
least movement of their foreign host. Another important rule 
is never to sit while any one else who is your equal is standing. 

Ansivers to Questions. — Like the French, the Chinese do 
not consider it always polite to simply answer ' Yes ' or ' No/' 
but often turn the interrogative form of a question into the 
affirmative, using the same words, as far as possible, in the 
reply that have been used in the questions. Foreigners 
are apt to think that Chinese are boorish when they answer 
in this manner, but they are only acting in accordanc? 
Avith their code of politeness. 

Enquiries as to Age, iSfc. — It is not considered rude for a 
Chinese to make most particular enquiries as to a stranger's 
personal affairs. In fact, the making of such enquiries 
often evinces great politeness. -'How old are you?' *Are 
you married ? ' ' How much money do you make a year ? ' 
' Where are you going ' ' What are you going to do ? ' ' How 
much did you pay for this ? ' These questions and others 
of the same character are constantly on a Chinaman's lips. 

Dwming. — It is not considered polite to ask a man, 
whom you may meet in the street, for a debt due by him 
to you. One of the most polite forms in which to request 
repayment is to ask your debtor for a loan of money for 
your own use. 

Aloises, §r. — Guttural sounds, hawking, clearing the 
throat, spitting, using the fingers to blow the nose, and 
eructations, are not necessarily considered impolite by the 
Chinese. It must be remembered that they look upon such 
things in quite a different way from what we do now-a-days. 
We say now-a-days, for it is not more than a few centuries 
ago that a book was published in England containing, among; 



■216 THINGS CHINESE. 

otliev things, directions how to bh)w the nose neatly with 
the fingers. But we will not offer any mjre remarks on such 
a nauseating subject. 

Want of dress. — A Chinese official will not allow liis 
c'lair-bearers to carry him in the half-naked manner which 
the Chinese coolie so delights in. The Mercantile classes 
and others are not particular in this respect. 

Spectacles. — It is considered impolite to wear spectacles 
before a guest or superior. A short-sighted man must 
be ready to submit to any amount of awkwardness rather 
than infringe this rule of etiquette. It is very amusing to 
see a witness in a Court of Justice looking at some document 
which he is unable to see properly, not daring to put on his 
glasses lest it should be construed into a sign of disrespect 
to the judge, perhaps mildly saying he is short-sighted, but 
in other cases never giving a hint that he cannot see properly 
without putting them on. If it is absolutely necessary that 
something should be looked at, and an apology having been 
oifei'ed, or permission having been given to put them on, 
they must be taken off as soon as possible afterwards. Some 
even hesitate to put them on when told to do so. 

Hats. — There are great differences in Chinese hats, some 
may, or rather must, be tolerated in a room or house, and 
others under no consideration whatever. The common skull- 
cap with a red or black knotted knob (or blue if the wearer 
is in mourning) is au fait. It should be worn in winter, 
in-doors or out, and is only dispensed with in summer for 
the same reason that Indian judges do not wear wigs in that 
country. The official hat, with the button indicative of the 
rank of the wearer, is dress, and is hastily donned to receive 
a visitor ; neither do the official hats of the mandarins' 
servants need to be removed on entering a house ; but the 
case differs in toto when we come to the ordinary rain and 
sun-hats, whether they are as large in size as an umbrella, or 
only about the size of a gong, or the small conical ones worn 
by the native soldiers and coolies, like those provided for 



ETIQUETTE. 217 

the Chinese policemen in Hongkong. The same holds good 
of the felt hats used in Avinter by coolies and tradesmen, &c. 
Hoods also sliould not be kept on inside one's house. If the 
hat is only of the right kind, it is politeness for a Chinese 
gentleman to put it on to receive his guest ; to appear 
bareheaded before a visitor is considered impolite. 

Queue. — Unless the nature of his work, such as carrying 
a chair or washing the floor requires, or makes it convenient 
for his queue to be wound in a coil round his neck or 
shoulders, or to be done up in any fashion in a bunch at the 
top or back of his head, no Chinese servant or inferior ought 
ever to appear so before his master or superior, but the queue 
should always hang down bshind. 

Finger-Nails. — Long finger nails are not considered a 
sign of dirtiness, but of respectability, and of being above 
manual labour, which, if necessary, would of course prevent 
them from attaining such length as an inch and a half, two 
inches, or even three, though it is seldom one sees them all of 
equal length on all the fingers. It is well that such is the 
case, as two or three on one or both hands give such a claw- 
like appearance to the fingers as to make them sufficiently 
repulsive ; fortunately hand-shaking is not in vogue in 
China, as it would be extremely unpleasant to feel the long 
talons gripping one's hand. 

Shaking Hands. — A Chinese clasps his two hands to- 
gether and nioves them up and down a few inches in front 
of himself several times. When excessively polite they are 
raised up as high as his forehead, while he makes a profound 
bow. Ladies do not do this, but clutch the left hand sleeve 
with the right hand, and imitate the same motion. 

Handing Things. — Both hands are used to pass any- 
thing, therefore a Chinese is not to be considered clumsy 
who hands any small articles, such as a cup of tea, in this 
manner : it would be thought the height of rudeness to 
do otherwise, for it Avould evince an unwillingness to take 
the little trouble necessary. The same rule of etiquette is 
observed in receiving anything from anyone. 



218 THINGS CHINESE. 

Meals. — At meals men and women never eat together^ 
unless the women are bad characters, even a husband and a 
wife should take their meals separately. This is the strict 
rule, but it is occasionally more honoured in the breach than 
in the observance. The children, or younger members of 
the family, wait till the grown-up people are seated, the- 
latter nod an assent to ' a show of asking permission to eat.* 
Each one has his own bowl of rice, and he picks up pieces 
of meat and vegetables, &c. from the common dishes in the 
centre of the table, but it is considered polite only to help- 
oneself from the side of the dish nearest to one. 

After each meal it is the custom to wipe the face and 
hands with a wet cloth wrung out of hot water. In the 
family circle each one will leave the table and do this wash- 
ing ; but at a dinner party the servants will bring a cloth, 
so wrung out, to each diner, a separate one being given to 
each if the guests and hosts are not very familiar, otherwise 
the same cloth may be used. In the Chit-kong province 
(where Soochow is) the same basin and cloth are used, as it 
shows that they are brotherly. 

One having finished may ask the others to 'eat 
leisurely,' which is the equivalent of saying 'excuse me,' 
• and he is then at liberty to leave the table. It is etiquette 
to remain sitting at meals till all have finished, but, in the 
event of urgent business, &c. demanding one's attention, a 
guest may, before the others have finished, lay his chop- 
sticks across his empty bowl, this being an indication of his 
desire to leave ; the host on observing it, lifts them down, 
places them on the table and says * ho hang ' (which is 
equivalent to our ' good bye,' though it really has the mean- 
ing, if freely rendered, of 'I hope you will have a safe walk,') 
to the guest, who is then free to depart. 

The above form of procedure takes place with strangers, 
or when everybody is on their best behaviour ; for, though 
it is incumbent on all to sit down together at the same time 
to their meals, it is unnecessary, in unceremonious inter- 
course, that all should rise at the same time. At formal 



ETIQUETTE. 219 

dinners or meals, however, the host cannot leave the table 
till he sees that all his guests, having all finished, wish to 
do so. 

V/SITLYG. — Tea Drinking. — The etiquette about tea 
drinking in connection with paying visits is curious. 
When paying a visit to an official if a servant should bring 
in a cup of tea there is no necessity to take any particular 
notice of it ; allow the servant to put it down where he likes 
near you, and continue your conversation with the man- 
darin. Should, however, he consider you a good friend, oi-, 
even in the case of a first call, should he desire to treat you 
with great respect, or evince his great pleasure at seeing 
you, he may hand you the cup of tea with his own hands. 
In such circumstances it is incumbent upon you to rise to 
your feet and take it from his two hands with both of yours, 

A cup of tea in an official call (be you either a civilian 
calling on an official, or even if you are both officials) is 
destined to play an important part. Your business over, or 
your conversation done, you invite your host to diink tea 
(ts'ing ch'a), which he thereupon proceeds to do with you, 
and the visit is over. Should you, however, be taxing the 
patience of your host by overstaying your welcome, or should 
a pressure of business make it necessary for him to bhorteu 
the call as much as possible, he begins to touch the cup with. 
his fingers, expecting you to take the hint. Are you such 
an obtuse individual that hints are entirely lost upon you ? 
Then he may sometimes- —though it is not quite the correct 
thing for him to do so — give you the invitation to take tea 
with him, when you will have to retire, feeling mortified at 
having transgressed the rules of politeness, and at being 
treated with rudeness in return. It must be remembered,. 
however, that this tea is never to be touched until it is time 
to go. These rules as to the conge do not hold good with 
people who are officials. 

Marks of Friendliness. — When seeing a Mandarin in 
his hall for transacting business, should he invite you into 



220 THINGS CHINESE. 

Iiis private apartments, then any subjects can be discussetl, 
;ind any amount of freedom, consistent, of course, with self- 
respect, may be enjoyed ; coats even may be thrown oft' till 
a state approaching nearly to the in i^uris naturalibus, 
so congenial to the Chinese in hot weather, is arrived at. 

Whispering. — The Chinese mode of using the hand to 
cover the mouth when whispering to any one is different 
from the Western style ; for, instead of simply covering the 
mouth with the hand spread open, the fingers of the hand 
are bent towards each other just as if a very large orange 
were being held in the hand, and in a position midway 
between a clenched fist and an open hand. The ends of 
the fingers are put close up to the mouth, or touching the 
lips, thus muffling the sound. This muffling is intensified 
it it is cold weather and a number of sleeves come over 
the hand. 

Beckoning. — In beckoning, the Chinese do not use one 
finger pointed upwards and curved towards one, as we do, 
but the hand is reversed, the finsrers hancjincr down and the 
Avliole liand is used to beckon towards one with a sweeping 
motion, in a most energetic manner. 

Names. — A curious rule holds good with regard to 
names in a family : it is against Chinese etiquette to name 
a child after liis father or grandfather, in fact the name of 
any member of a former generation must not be used 
by a descendant. The ' Peking Gazette ' some years since 
contained an application forwarded by the Viceroy of Canton 
from General Hsieh Hung-chang to be allowed to alter his 
name to Hsieh Te-lung, as it had been discovered from 
his family register that a remote ancestor of his had a 
name identical with his own. 

IVives. — The way in wliich a Chinese treats a wife is, 
according to our Western ideas, peculiar. One or two in- 
stances of it have already been noticed. It is not amongst many 
Chinese considered a proper thing to write a letter to one's wife 
if absent from home. The family idea conies into play here as 



I 



ETIQUETTE 221 

it (Iocs in so iii;iny nuittcrs connpcted with Cliiiioso so(n;il and 
domestic life. The man's inorlior is tlie liead of tlic family 
when 'he is away from the 'family h.ouse.' What then, ac- 
cording' to this Chinese way ot' Lutking at things, more 
natural and proper than that he should write to his mother ? 
The next best thing is to write to his son, thougli an infant, 
or even to his daughter, for all signs of affection between 
husband and wife are to be deprecated, not that such 
indications are simply bad forni^ but they are looked upon 
as even indelicate. Failing any proper person to send his 
letter to, the Chinese may send to the one whom the 
Englishman would think first of all of writing to ; even in 
this case, however, the letter must not be addressed on the 
cover to his wife though it may be inside, but the envelope 
is directed 'To be handed to the family.' Some of the 
Chinese are better than their rules of etiquette or propriety 
and write direct to the wife, even if there be a mother or 
child. A wife again in Avriting to her husband does so in 
the name of a son, or failing a son, of a daughter. 

The following extract will show how incongruous the 
Western and Eastern codes of etiquette are : — 

'Foreign ignorance of the customs of the Chinese is another 
cause of a feeHng of superiority on the part of the Chinese. Tliat any 
one should be ignorant of what they have always, known, seems to 
them to be ahiiost incredible. Many Chinese unconsciously adopt 
toward foreigners an air of amused interest, combined with de- 
preciation, like that which Mr. Littimer regarded David Copperfield, 
as if mentally saying perpetually, " So young, sir, so young ! " '- 
* *". * * There are multitudes of details in regard to social matters, 
of which one must necessarily be ignorant, for the reason that he 
has never heard of them, and tliere must loe a first time for every 
acquisition. * '•' ^■' *' '■' * * Inability to conform to Cliinesc 
ideas and ideals, in ceremony, as well as what we consider more 
important matters, causes the Chinese to feel a thinly disguised 
contempt for a race whom they think will not and cannot be made 
to understand "propriety." It is not that a foreigner cannot make a 
bow, but he generally finds it hard to make a Chinese bow in a 
Chinese way, and the difficully is as much moral as physical. The 
foreigner feels a contempt for the code of ceremonials, often frivolous 
in their appearance, and he has no patience, if he has the capacity, 
to spend twenty minutes in a polite scuffle, the termination of which 
is foreseen by both sides with absolute certainty. The foreigner does 
not wish to spend his time in talking empty nothings for ' an old half 



222 THINGS CHINESE. 

day.' To him, time is money, but it is very far from being so to a 
Chinese, for in China every one has an abundance of time, and very 
few have any money. No Chinese has ever yet learned that when he 
kills time, it is well to make certain that it is the time which belongs 
4:0 him, and not that of some one else. 

With this predisposition to dispense as much as possible with 
superfluous ceremony because it is distasteful, and because the time 
which it involves can be used more aereeably in other ways, it is not 
strange that the foreigner, even in his own eyes, makes but a poor 
figure in comparison with a ceremonious Chinese. Compare the dress, 
bearings, and action of a Chinese official, with long flowing robes and 
graceful motions, with the awkward genuflections of his foreign 
visitor. It requires all the native politeness of the Chinese to prevent 
them from laughing outright at the contrast. In this connection it 
must be noted that nothing contributes so effectively to the instinctive 
Chinese contempt for the foreigner, as evident disregard which the 
latter feels for that official display so dear to the Oriental. What 
must have been the inner thought of the Chinese who were told that 
they were to behold the "great American Emperor," and who saw 
General Grant in citizen's costume with a cigar in his mouth, walking 
along the open street .'' Imagine a foreign Consul, who ranks with 
a Chinese Taot'ai, making a journey to a provincial capital to inter- 
view the Governor, in order to settle an international dispute. 
Thousands are gathered on the city wall to vvatch the procession of 
the great foreign magnate, a procession which is found to consist of 
two carts and riding horses, the attendants of the Consul being an 
Interpreter, a Chinese acting as messenger (t'ing ch'ai), and another 
as cook ! Is it any wonder that Orientals gazing on such a scene, 
should look with a curiosity which changes first to indifference, 
and then to contempt .'' ' 

Biwhs recommended. — Some interesting papers have appeared lately in 
-the Chinese Recorder for 1898, entitled 'Notes on Chinese Etiquette,' by- 
Rev. G. G. Warren. 

EURASIANS.— l^he children of European fathers by 
Asiatic mothers or vice versa, are, by a union of the first 
syllables of both words, called Eurasians. Some dress in the 
foreign style and some in the native: the former look more 
like their Chinese mothers than their fathers ; the latter 
look very white and foreign-like. Their eyes are generally 
black, though the results of the second and third generations 
of such alliances are often very fair, have brownish hair, and 
occasionally lighter-coloured eyes. The union of the two 
bloods seems, as far as the men are concerned, to produce a 
more sprightly race than the Chinese, and one whose organs 
of speech are better adapted to pronounce English than those 
of pure Chinese breed ; for it is a very rare thing for a 



EURASIANS, 223 

Chinese to speak English accurately, as vavo almost as for 
an Englishman to speak Chinese like a native, though he 
may liave resided for years in Cliina in the one case, or in 
England in the other. Some of the girls who liave a 
preponderance of English blood in them are very pretty and 
fair. Unfortunately the majority of the daughters are brought 
\\p to lead an immoral life, and sold like slaves into it. 

There is a Eurasian school in Shanghai, a great number 
of the children in the Diocesan Home and Orphanage in 
Hongkong belong to the same class, and there are a very large 
number of them in the Government Central School (now called 
Queen's College) in the same Colony. They are drafted 
from these establishments into the lawyer's and other offices, 
where they make very useful clerks and interpreters, from 
their knowledge of both Chinese and English, 

It is not all the half-castes that come under this class, 
as numbers of them are swallowed up under the name of 
Portuguese, which, in the Far East, is not restricted alone to 
those worthy of that name, but is used to designate all, 
who, having some drops of foreign blood in their veins, 
elect to call themselves such, dress in foreign clothes, and 
talk a smattering of the patois glorified with the name 
of Portuguese, but which, in reality, is a sort of pidgin- 
Portuguese, and not understood by new arrivals from Portugal, 
who require an interpreter to explain it to them. Macaoese 
would be a better term, as the majority of them are either 
born in Macao or have descended from residents it that city. 
They are of all shades of colour, and their complexions show 
traces of Indian (Goa), Chinese, Japanese, and European, 
ancestry in all degrees of proportion. The mercantile offices 
are full of them. They write a good hand, and act as clerks, 
but seldom rise to any position of great trust and confidence. 
They work as a rule for a mere pittance, and the poorer 
classes herd together after the manner of Chinese. A very 
few are ensraored as merchants in business. 



224 THINGS CHINESE. 

EXAMINATIONS.— ^Q have treated of the end and 
aim of education in China in a former ai'ticle {See Article 
on Education). It now falls to our lot to write more fully 
of the final step to this goal, namely, the system of Civil 
Service examinations in China. In the matter of competitive 
examinations the Chinese present one of those unique 
spectacles which are alike the wonder, as Avell as the 
admiration, of those who understand them. 

In this strange land there has been in vogue for centuries, 
and even millenniums, a system of examinations, which, 
originally started with testing the ability of those already 
in office, has gradually widened in scope till at this time it 
is all-embracing in point of geographical extent, and is the 
test of ability which all have to undergo who desire admission, 
into the Civil Service of this immense empire with its 
thousands of officials ; with this end in view, boys are incited 
to learn their lessons and be diligent; with this aim, men 
pursue their weary course of study, year in and year out. till 
white hairs replace the black, and the shoulders, wliich at 
first merely aped the scholarly stoop, eventually bend beneath 
the weight of years of toil. No other country in the world 
presents the curious sight of grandfather, father, and even 
son, competing at the same time. Failures seem only to 
spur on to renewed trials, until, after many times having 
formed a unit amongst the annual two millions that pass 
through one or other of the ordeals of this gigantic 
examination scheme, the old man of seventy or eighty, who 
has been unfortunate enough not to appear among the small 
percentage, of one or two out of a hundred, that is allowed 
to pass, finally attracts Imperial notice, and, as an honour, 
and the meed of his untiring perseverance and indefatigable 
toil, receives the coveted reward. 

The scheme is widespread as the empire : every petty 
district city even has its Examination Hall, where the 
•initial trials are conducted under the supervision of the 
Imperial Chancellor, a sub-chancellor being in residence, who 
subjects the candidates to a preliminary examination. Out of 



EDUCATION. 225 

the two thousand or so, only twenty of the best receive the 
degree which the Chinese term ' Siii-ts'ai,' meaning 'budding 
genius,' but which for convenience is generally termed by 
foreigners the B.A., though, except for the analogy of being 
the first degree obtained in both East and West, there is 
scarcely any point of similarity, and so it is throughout the 
whole series of degrees. An original poem and one or two 
essays by each candidate on the subjects assigned to them 
are the exercises of this examination. A night and a day 
are spent in their production. The results to the successful 
student are as follows : — no office or appointment, but 
admission is granted him into the charmed circle of those 
who are entitled to wear the lowest grade of gold button, 
on the tops of their hats, and who are protected 'from 
corporal punishment; it raises him above the common people, 
renders him a conspicuous man in his native place, and eligible 
to enter the triennial examination for the second degree,' 
held in the provincial capital, the successful candidates at 
which take the second degree, styled the 'Chii-jin,' or 
•' promoted scholar,' or M.A. This examination lasts through 
' three sessions of nearly three days each.' The examiners 
are the Imperial Commissioner and ten provincial officers. 
Some six thousand, more or less, according to the size of 
the province, enter for this examination. Essays in prose- 
and verse are required, but of course there is mucli 
more given to be done, and a higher style is required 
than in the former, and much strictness is exercised 
with regard to the slightest errors in the essays. The small 
percentage that pass still get no appointment, nor office, but 
rise higher in the public estimation, wear a higher grade of 
gilt button, when in dress, and put a board over the front 
doors of their houses with the mystic characters of 'Promoted 
Men/ as well as the date of attaining this distinction. One 
step more entitles the scholar to eventually obtain office. 
This next higher degree is taken at Peking. It is termed 
' Tsun-sz,' or Entered Scholar, or L.L.D. Lots are drawn for 
vacant posts, and the successful candidate may, perchance, 
begin his official career as a district magistrate. 

N 



226 THINGS CHINESE. 

Another degree may, however, be taken, success in the 
examination for which entitles to admission to the Hanlin 
College. The members of this College are * constituted poets 
and historians to the Celestial Court, or deputed to act as 
Chancellors and Examiners in the several provinces.' The 
highest on the list, after two special examinations in the 
Emperor's palace and in the presence of the Emperor 
himself, is styled the ' Chuang-yuen ' or ' Laureate.' 

This then is a rough sketch of this wonderful system ; 
the details of which, as regards the subsidiary examina^ions, 
might be filled in at great length. Enough has been written 
to convey some idea of the system as a whole, but it is 
difficult to describe the enthusiasm which pervades the whole 
country with regard to the examinations. Congratulations are 
showered on the successful students ; they dine with the highest 
officials after the event, and the Emperor himself entertains 
the most celebrated of all. It is naturally to be excepted 
that the family of the successful candidate should feel 
honoured, but those who take the highest honours are looked 
upon as conferring distinction on their native places; and it is 
quite a sight, on going through a Chinese City, to see the 
red boards, with gilt characters, placed over certain doors, 
proclaiming to all passers by the degree, or degrees, taken by 
the inmates, separate boards being used for those who have 
taken the higher positions, such as senior tripos, »&c., in 
each respective examination. On the blank walls of the 
fronts of the houses will often also be seen large yellow 
or red papers with red or yellow letters on them; for it is 
customary when any one has been successful at an exami- 
nation to send a poster with large characters on it announc- 
ing to all one's friends and relatives the fact. For examina- 
tions at which one has been successful in the provinces, red 
paper is used with yellow characters, bat for those held in 
Peking yellow paper with red characters is used. 

Besides the legitimate interest taken in these literary 
contests, they form the Goodwoods and Derbys of China; for 
not only is the news of success spread far and wide as fast 



EDUCATION. 227 

as swift messengers, vapid boats, and fleet couriers can carry 
it to waiting friends and expectant relatives ; but it is as 
eagerly received by utter strangers, who, having staked on 
the issue, are in excitement to know the result. 

Like everything Chinese, these trials of literary skill of 
the future governors of the people are held in far diff'erent 
surroundings from Avhat a Westerner would expect. The 
buildings cover a large extent of ground, that in Canton 
occupies sixteen acres. After the main entrance (which is 
within the entrance of the outside wall) is passed, a broad 
avenue leads up to a congeries of buildings for the use of the 
Examiners and others connected with them and their work. 
On each -side of this main avenue are narrow lanes, giving 
access to the 8;653 cells in which the students are confined. 
These cells are five feet nine inches bv three feet eijrht 
inches wide, their height being a trifle over that of a 
man. There are two grooves in the wall for two planks ; 
one forms a table, the other a seat for the solitary student 
shut up in each cell. It is a species of imprisonment, no 
communication being allowed with the candidates under 
penalty of severe punishment. They enter the Examination 
Hall with provisions, fuel, caudles, bedding, and writing 
materials, being searched to see that no 'cribs,' or other 
means of assisting their laboui-, are smuggled in, it being 
the constant practice for some to do tiiis : a specially small 
miniature edition of the classics is printed for the purpose 
and secreted about the person. The confinement must be 
irksome and disaa^reeable in the extreme ; deaths occasion- 
ally occur from excitement, the privations and exposure 
being greater than old age can endure. In other places 
the Examination Hall is not of the same construction. 
The author visited one in the district city of Kit Y(ing, 
near Swatow, where the students had long forms and tables 
provided for them. In the departmental city of Ch'au- 
chau-fu, the Examination Hall is fitted up in a similar 
manner, judging from the peep into it from outside which 
the writer had. 

N 2 



228 THINGS CHINESE. 

The Chinese have been wise in thus giving the people a 
share in their own government, nor is it in the way of 
pandering to the democracy; but it is bestowed as a right on 
those who are fitted for it by an education, which, though 
not on a par with a modern western course of study, is by 
no means to be despised when compared with that in vogue- 
in Europe a few centuries since. Thus ambitious spirits 
have a career open before them, which may lead them up 
to the very foot of the throne itself; the extra exuberance of 
youth is toned down by a course of study which must have a 
great effect in producing the grave and reverend seniors, Avhich 
Chinese mandarins are. It produces likewise a conservative 
element, as it is to the interest of the whole body of literati 
to conserve the existing polity and resist all violent change 
which might overthrow their position and prospects. For this 
reason, if for no other, progress in China will be comparatively 
slow, and probably none the less sure on account of its 
slowness. China has also by this admirable plan — admirable,- 
taken as a whole, alike in its conception, development, and 
working — prevented herself from being overburdened by an 
aristocracy, with all its concomitant evils, which, had it existed, 
would, as in most European countries, have monopolised alL 
that was worth having in the government until driven inch 
by inch from its unfair position, — a Avork long in operation,- 
and difficult of accomplishment. 

Here then is a mighty system, complete in all its 
details, ready, as soon as western science takes a fair grasp of 
the nation, to be used as a means of disseminating scientific 
knowledge and methods throughout the length and breadth of 
the land, as well as literary style and polish. Some faint 
indications that such may eventually be its function have 
already been given. 

Besides the literary examinations, military examinations 
for officers of the army are held, in which skill in gymnastic 
exercises, such as lifting heavy weights and shooting with 
bows and arrows, are the tests required. But the Chinese 
have shown their wisdom in considerins: warlike exercises as 



EXTRATERRITORIALITY. 22i> 

far inferior to literary ability : military officers, as compared 
■Avith civil functionaries, are despised, and under the heading 
■of military officers are included naval officers as well. 

Of late years, as has been remarked above, there has been 

a tendency to introduce a few mathematical and other 

questions at some of the centres of examination, and this 

attempt to employ western knowledge culminated in an edict 

by the Emperor Kwong Sui, dated the 23rd of June 1898. 

directing that at the literary examinations from those of 

■doctor down to those for licentiates the candidates should 

write short practical essays instead of using the Chinese 

classics entirely as heretofore. A similar attempt, made 

by the Emperor Kanghi, to vivify with the touch of knowledge 

tlie stagnant pool of Chinese ancient lore, resulted in a short 

time in a return to the old state of affairs, as public opinion 

was against any innovation ; and an even quicker reversal of 

the Emperor's plans has taken place in this case, for the 

Empress Dowager, with, as far as can be seen at present, a 

fatuity fraught with the greatest danger, has upset this as 

well as the other beneficent plans inaugurated by Kwong 

Sui. 

' The standard essay — Wen-chang— has been the chief cause 
of the working of the minds of the literati and causing them to 
labour ceaselessly in the same old tread-mill. It has held absolute 
sway for a millennium over China's intellectual life, and its baneful 
effects can be seen everywhere in the literature of the last three 
dynasties. Scholars have learned what they could not afterwards make 
use of in actual life, and they have had no time left for learning 
what could be used. The scholars of the Sung dynasty bequeathed 
in this legacy of the Wen-chang a burden of such weight upon the 
mental life cf China that it has been steadily crushing out its very 
existence. Originated to perpetuate classical learning it has been 
the liveliest factor in suppressing the desire for such knowledge. It 
has absolutely nothing to be said in its favour unless the remark of 
an eminent living statesman of China be given to its credit that "it 
has repressed rebellion by keeping the minds of ambitious men 
cramped by the pursuit of useless knowledge." The main reason 
that has kept it alive has been that it was supposed to be the essence 
of orthodox Confucianism.' 

EXTRATERRITORIALITY.—As the laws and judicial 
system in force in China partake more of the character of 
those in operation in Europe in the middle ages, Europeans 



230 THINGS CHINESE. 

and Americans in China, as well as in otiier Asiatic countries, 
have insisted on being amenable to their own laws, and' 
exempted from the legal process of the country in which 
they dwell. 

There is a Supreme Court, with a Chief Justice and other 
officeis under the Foreign Office of England, which sits in 
Shanghai, and proceeds in circuit to the different treaty ports 
when cases arise, demanding its attendance amongst British 
subjects or in which one party is British. The Consular 
Courts, presided over by the British Consuls, take cognisance 
of the smaller cases, or hold a preliminary enquiry in the 
more important ones. The posts of Chief Justice and Consul- 
General have been amalgamated, and the Consul-General at 
Shanghai, has in addition to his other duties, performed those 
of Chief Justice. 

On the other hand, if a Chinese is sued by an English- 
man, the trial takes place in a Chinese Court, at the instance 
of the English Consul. In Hongkong, of course, this rule 
does not hold good, for, being an English Colony, it is an 
integral part of the British Empire. Chinese criminals 
sometimes escape from the mainland to this island. Before 
their rendition to the Chinese authorities, an inquiry is held 
by the Police Magistrate, Avho, ou j^i^i^^^'^ facie proof of the 
crimes, sends up the cases to the Governor of the Colony, 
who decides as to whether the criminals are to be handed 
over to the Chinese or not. Applications have been made 
to the Supreme Court of the Colony, on a Avrit of habeas 
corpus, for a release of the prisoners on some alleged technical 
flaw; but these have rarely succeeded. Nevertheless the 
Chinese authorities at Canton have felt a considerable amount 
of soreness on the subject, as it is difficult for them to under- 
stand (with their system of torture of prisoners and Avitnesses, 
and the forced confessions extorted from the fornaer and 
even at times from the letter), the importance of unshaken,, 
truthful evidence, and of genuine eye-witnesses. The un- 
certainty of English law, and the jealous care exercised. 



FAIRY TALES. 231 

■over the prisoner in case he should be innocent, are incom- 
prehensible to them. 

Books rrt-om mended. — ' Exterritoriality, The Law relating to Consular 
Jurisdiction and to Residence in Oriental Oonntries,' l)y F. T. Piyirott, M.A., 
Ll.M. 'Jurisdiction et P]x.territorialite en Chine,' par J. Helenius Ferguson. 

FAIRY TALES.— Theve are many fairy tales to be 
found in Chinese literature, but different in detail to those of 
the West. The animal world, like the wolf in Red Riding 
Hood, comes in, but in a more artistic form than in the old 
nursery tale, as the foxes assume human shape at will, not 
being detected till well on in the story, and they are bene- 
ficent as well as malignant. ' Our Chinese foxes, \vhich are 
represented as the frequenters of the ancient sepulchres, tui-n 
into the Elves of the Forest, and by moonlight imbibe the 
ethereal essence of heaven and earth. They dig up the graves 
of the dead and place their skulls on their foreheads. They. 
then look up to the North Pole and bow to the Starry Host. 
If the skulls do not fall off while they perform this rite, they 
change into lovely and fascinating females.' Love often 
plays an important part in some of these stories, showing 
that, though not considered proper by the prudish Chinese, 
humaii nature and the ruling passion Avill yet reveal them- 
selves even under the most repressive circumstances. Besides 
this class of fairy tales, much of the Taouist mythology 
miulit be classed under this category, when the marvellous 
and miraculous doings of the gods, demi-gods, and genii, are 
told at garrulous length and with, tedious detail. 

In China it is n(jt only tlie children that believe in 

sprites, fairies, dryads, nymphs, demons, and goblins, but the 

children of an older growth nearly all firmly believe in them ; 

for the whole universe to the average Chinaman is peopled 

with unseen denizens, who occasionally appear to the good 

or evil, and reward or punish them in quite the orthodox 

story-book style. 

/?()((/.'.< r(co))iviriidrd. — 'Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio,' trans- 
lated and annotated by Herbert A. Giles. 2 vols, De la. Rue & Co. "The 
Fairy Foxes,' published by Messrs. Kelly and Walsh. Ld. 'Scraps from 
Chinese Mytholoiry,' in different numbers of the 'China Review,' by Rev. 
Dj-er Bali, m,a., m.d,, annotated by J, Dyer Ball, 



-232 THINGS CHINESE. 

FANS. — There can scarcely be any other nation on 
earth that uses such quantities of fans : amongst us. the use 
of the fan is confined to the gentler sex. and it would be 
considered effeminate, or at all events singular, for a gentle- 
man to sport one. With the Chinese, fans are used as much 
by the one sex as by the other, and particular makes or 
forms are confined in their use to the male sex. All sorts of 
materials are employed in their construction, the palm leaf, 
which nature seems almost to have designed as an object 
lesson and a hint, being one of the most commou ; silk, 
paper, bamboo, feathers, and other things, are also used. 
The largest size of palm leaf, nearly a yard in diameter, of an 
orbicular shape, has a neat rim braided round it, the stalk 
formintr the natural handle This gigantic size is placed in 
the hands of slave-girls, and other female domestics, to 
perform the duty which the poet inveighed against so 
strongly in the well-known lines : — 

' I would not have a slave to till my ground, 
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep. 
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
That sinews bought and sold have ever earned.' 

The smaller kind of the same shape, and of which such 
large quantities are exported to America — the common 
palm-leaf fan — is used by the lower classes, and it is curious 
to notice the variety of uses to which this fan is put in 
China : it serves to blow up the wooden or charcoal fire in 
the earthenware furnaces instead of a pair of bellows ; old 
torn-down looking seamstresses pin it on the top of their 
hair to serve as a hat ; it also does duty as a sunshade ; it 
is used, in common with other fans, as a duster to fan or flap 
away the dust off a seat, or to cool the chair before offering 
it to a visitor; to drive out the mosquitoes out of the 
.mosquito net ; to fan the restless baby to sleep ; to cool the 
hungry youngster's food ; and it comes in handy for many 
another purpose. 



FANS. 233 

There is a great variety of fans, and the foHowing 
classification embraces many, thougli not all of them, viz.: — 
Feather fans, folding fans, and screen fans ; the latter are of 
a variety of shapes, ' round, octagonal, sexagonal or 
■polygonal.' The young Chinese exquisite in his robes of silk 
and satin, generally carries, at the proper seasons, one of 
them in his hand, the gift perchance of some artistic and 
literary friend, who has embellished it with a landscape in 
black and white, and/or a few lines from his pen in either 
prose or poetry. We give an inscription on one of these 
fans which was presented to a European. It not only gives 
an idea of what such inscriptions may be, but also shows 
what a Chinese complimentary letter is like. We have 
changed the names from what they were in the original : — 

' The noteworthy visit you paid me some time ago has filled my 
humble cottage with glory. I believe you are a virtuous man whose 
object it is to benefit the world with your kind heart, which is ready to 
afford free services to the distressed it comes in sight of. This being 
its policy, many a poor sufferer has had his chronic disease removed 
and got immediate relief from great difficulties. How greatly in need 
is this class of people ! Furthermore, our unexpected iTieeting has 
quickly made us bosom friends. That a man so forsaken by the 
world as myself can gain so true a friend as you is rare. It has given 
me great consolation to hear of your promotion to the post ot Chief 
Medical Officer. Your success is the result of your repeated good 
deeds which always multiply one's blessings : The Eye of Heaven 
clearly sees our human actions. Though I am not worthy of your 
friendship, I sincerely hope you will not forget me after you have lel't 
here for your new appointment. Send me advice and instruction to 
amend my defects. True affection forbids me to forget you or to cease 
thinking of you. May there still be a time lor our future meeting and 
companionship is my earnest prayer. 

Kwong-sui, 1 6th year, 9ih moon in autumn. Written in the 
Tsing Ming Tai Tak Fort, Kwong-tung province, for the use of Dr. 
Cheung-lei. Scribbled by Chau Yau (z//.'Z5 Sik Ping.' 

The silk of which some of these fans are made is 
actually spun by the silkworm on the bamboo frame which 
surrounds the fan. This may seem incredible, but the 
writer has in his possession a small disc of silk, a few inches 
in diameter, spun in the lid of a tin canister, and given to 
him by a friend in whose house it liad actually been 
produced. It therefore requires no credulity to believe that 



234 THINGS CHINESE. 

a fail somewhat larger could be thus made. The folding ftui 
is universal throughout China, from the cheap affair, of 
course bamboo splints and black paper with a few splashes 
of gilt, to the more expensive kinds ; though the gorgeous 
folding fans that are sent to Europe and America are not 
used by the Chinese themselves — they are simply made to 
please the outside barbarian. In Canton simple white ones 
can be bought witli maps of the city on them ; the Chinese 
map-maker has, however, adapted his map to the shape 
of tlie fan. Many of the feather fans are lyre-shaped, 
with a white bone or ivory handle, and eight, ten, 
or a dozen long feathers ranged in order — a fan fit to 
meet the requirements of fastidious gentlemen. A lady 
sports one in which, perhaps nearly a score of feathers are 
emfiloyed, and which, unlike the gentleman's long narrow 
shape, is broader than long. In Amoy the writer procured a 
curious fan which came from Formosa, a fibrous, somewhat 
lyre-shaped, leaf having a few leaves or sprays as ornamen- 
tations burnt into it with a hot iron. The Swatow fan is 
another sort that is well-known : a bamboo tube, about the 
thickness of a small finger, serves as the handle; to form the 
framework, the bamboo above the handle is split into very 
thin slips; the surface is paper, pasted over these slips, on 
which some elegant figure or two, a bird, or some scene from 
Chinese history, or mythology, is depicted ; the top is slightly 
bent over. Tljis is one of the best of open fans to use. 

It is amusing to see the vigorous Avay in which a 
Chinese fans himself: not content with a languid stirring 
of tlie air in front of his face and chest, he inserts the fan 
under his jacket, both front and back, and applies it 
vigorously till cooled, when his legs and arms will come iu 
for an equal share of attention. 

The ordinary way to carry a fan is in the hand, but 

another convenient place for a folding one is the back of the 

neck, or it is sometimes stuck by a tradesman into the top 

of his stocking. It takes the place of a walking-stick with a. 

. Chinese gentleman, as it gives him something to hold iu his 



FANS. 235 

hand, and to flutter and Avave and gesticulate with, when 
excited. With schoolmasters, it is constantly at hand to rap 
a boy over the head or to call attention by t;ip[)lng the desk 
with it. It serves to give point and emphasis to the public 
speaker's periods ; when he has M-armed up to his subject and 
his heated oratory has had its effect, and a cooler frame 
and quieter manner will suit his next periods better, he 
opens its folded ribs and with a few leisurely motions brings 
down his temperature to its desired state ; it adds grace to 
the faultless get-up of the jeanesse doree; while the youthful 
bride is sheltered from the too inquisitive stare of the crowd 
by her attendant's fan ; the over-heated coolie cools himself 
with it as he rests a moment or two from his arduous toil ; 
and the sweltering half-naked blacksmith has his apprentice 
fan him Avhen engaged before the glowing forge ; the man- 
darin has a huge imitation screen-fan of wood carried in his 
reiiniie, which comes in useful when he meets a fellow 
official with whom he has no time to waste in salutations 
by the way, for their attendants interpose these wooden 
fans, and neither official has seen the other, thus obviating 
the necessity of stopping the processions and descending 
from the sedan-chairs. 

Folding fans may be used at any time of the year ; but 
certain other fans are only to be used at certain seasons. 
Thus palm-leaf fans and those made of goose feathers are for 
summer. while wlien the weather is neither very cold nor 
very hot — as in autumn, and likewise towards the latter part 
of spring — circular silk fans are seen. Winter has no dis- 
tinctive fans assigned to it, for the obvious reason that fans 
arc not generally required in cold weather. 

Fans are used in decorative art : open work spaces are 
left in walls of that shape; papers for fans are painted, 
mounted, and framed as pictures. Even the gods and genii 
are sometimes represented with these indispensables of a hot 
climate., some of them being capable of all sorts of magic. 



236 THINGS CHINESE. 

A deserted wife is, by that happy periphrasis so con- 
stantly employed by the Chinese, known as 'an autumn fan ' 
from the inscription written on a fan, and sent to her royal 
master, by a lady of the Court, who found herself in this 
unenviable position two thousand years ago. The pathetic 
lines written on this memorable fan have been rendered into 
English by Dr. Martin, as follows : — 

LINES INSCRIBED ON A FAN. 

(Written by Pan Tsieh Yu, a lady of the Court, a?id presejited to the 
Emperor Cheng-ti of the Haji Dy?iasty, B.C. i8.) 

Of fresh new silk, all snowy white, 

And round as harvest moon, 
A pledge of purity and love, 

A small, but welcome boon — 

While summer lasts, borne in the hand, 

Or folded on the breast, 
'Twill gently soothe thy burning brow, 

And charm thee to thy rest. 

But ah ! when autumn frosts descend, 

And autumn winds blow cold. 
No longer sought, no longer loved, 

'Twill lie in dust and mould. - 

This silken fan, then deign accept, 

Sad emblem of my lot. 
Caressed and cherished for an hour, 

Then speedily forgot. 

B whs recommended. — An article "On Chinese Fans' that originally 
appeared in 'Fraser's Magazine' and also in 'Historic China and other 
Sketches' bj^ H. A. Giles, published by De la Rue & Co., p. 294. For an 
amusing skit on the fickleness of the female sex and on marriage, one is 
referred to Davis's 'China and the Chinese,' Vol. 2, p. 119 et seq., where 
the story of a widow fanning her late husband's grave is given. 

FILIAL PIETY.— Yi\m\ piety is the greatest of all 
virtues in the Chinese eyes, while disobedience is the greatest 
of all crimes. From his early childhood the child is trained 
up, as far as books are concerned, in this idea, while at the 
same time he is spoiled by the doting love of fond parents, 
mixed with such a portion, however, of severity, that the 
■compound of bitter-sweet treatment produces on the whole 



FILIAL PIETY. 237 

better results than might reasonably be expected ; the bitter, 
generally coming after the sweets of" spoiled infancy, has 
some effect in toning down the over-indulgence so lavishly 
acted on. Filial piety is very wide-reaching in its applica- 
tion among the Chinese. It concerns itself with a proper 
care of their bodies, as these being received perfect from 
their parents, it is their duty to preserve them. As regards 
one's parents, it is, according to our Western ideas, most 
exacting, though at the same time there is no doubt that if 
the Chinese have erred too much in going to one extreme, 
we have likewise erred in going to the other. Confucius 
said, ' while a man's father is alive, look at the bent of his 
will ; when his father is dead, look at his conduct. If for 
three years he does not alter from the way of his father, 
then he may be considered to be filial.' He also taught that 
filial piety should be accompanied by reverence, and that its 
duties should be performed with a cheerful countenance. It 
is thought to militate against rebellion, and is considered to 
be the sovirce of loyalty to the Sovereign. The way in which 
it works is thus expressed in the ' Classic of Filial Piety ' : — 

' Filial duty is the root of virtue, and the stem from which 
instruction in the moral principle springs. * '■' * •". The first 
thing which filial duty requires of us is, that we carefully preserve 
from all injury, and in a perfect state, the bodies which we have 
received from our parents. And when we acquire for ourselves a 
station in the world, we should regulate our conduct by correct princi- 
ples so as to transmit our name to future generations, and reflect glory 
on our parents. This is the ultimate aim of filial duty. Thus it 
commences in attention to parents, is continued through a course of 
services rendered to the prince, and is completed by the elevation of 
ourselves.' 

As Archdeacon Gray remarks in his book, ^China' : 'The 
Chinese Government is only to be understood through the 
relation which exists between a father and his son.' 

Instances of extraordinary self-denial are constantly 
occurring amongst the Chinese on the part of children 
towards their parents. They undergo imprisonment at times 
in their stead, but, what is still more strange, they cut out 
pieces of their own flesh, cook it, and give it to them to eat,- 



238 THINGS CHINESE. 

when seriously ill and when other remedies have failed; it 
seems to be a never-failing cure to judge from the accounts 
that appear in t!ie native newspapers concerning it. The 
youths are incited to these and other acts of devotion by the 
recital of instances of self-denial on behalf of parents. There 
are twenty-four of these stories of paragons of filial piety. 
One thawed through the ice on a pond, by lying naked on it, 
and then caught carp, of which his mother was fond. 
Another went into the bed at night to let the mosquitoes 
liave their fill on him before his parents should retire to rest- 
Another, though seventy years old, played like a child to 
amuse his aged father and mother. As an instance of the 
great lengths to which the Chinese go in this respect, a 
father was preparing to bury alive his only child of three 
years of age, as poverty was so pressing that there was a 
^difficulty in supporting his mother ; Heaven intervened, how- 
ever, for when digging, he came across a pot of gold. One 
sees in ancestral worship the full development of filial piety 
when the parents and ancestors are deifi.ed and divine honours 
are paid to them, with, however, it must be confessed, a very- 
selfish feeling for the great part, for the raison cVetre of 
ancestral Avorship is founded mainly upon a desire to pro- 
pitiate the departed spirits, and thus ensure prosperity to 
themselves. ^^See Article on Ancestral Worship). 

A great deal of filial piety is mere ceremonial observance 

with but little real heart at the bottom of it, and there are 

as unfilial sons to be found in China as in our own land, still, 

at the same time, it must be good for the youth of this vast 

empire, teeming with future men and women, to have such a 

high standard, on the whole, held up for their guidance. 

Bo(ili'!< rc'C(ym in ended: — Legge's 'Chinese Classics.' ' Tlie Sacred 
Edict' translated by Rev. W. Milne. 'Chinese Eepositorj-,' Vol. X.. j). 1<)4. 
Doolittle's ' Social Life of the Chinese,' Vol. I., p. 4i"j2 et seq. 

FIRECRACKERS AND FIREWORKS.— The Chinese 
are essentially a noisy people- —all Orientals are. Spending 
so much time out of doors has doubtless something to 
do Avith their noisy way of talking ; for they will shout 



FIRECRACKERS AND FIREWORKS. 239 

nt each other when a quiet whisper w<juld servo tlieir 
purpose as well, if not better. Their music, much of it at 
least, is noisy — what with clash of cymbals, clang of gongs, 
the loud sounding drum, the harsh untuued flageolets and 
the shrill flutes, and the entire absence of piano effects, one 
must suppose that the constant forte and fortisshno is 
as entertaining as the softest and sweetest song without 
words is to our ears. And the crackers — the firecrackers — 
here is a perfect apotheosis of noise. A perfect carnival 
of uproar and deafening sound is produced, especially at 
New Year's time, by their almost continuous discharge, for at 
that joyous season a perfect pandemonium reigns rampant. 
Woe betide the foreigner in a native city then, or even in 
the British Colony of Hongkong itself where their discharge 
is limited to a certain period of shorter duration than the 
unrestrained jubilation of the unfettered Chinese is content 
wdth. Sleep is almost out of the question at night while 
house after house and shop after shop lets off" its strings of fire- 
crackers, the rattling of the small artillery being accentuated 
by a louder boom every little while from a bomb of larger 
size. The only grain of comfort to the foreigner, while this 
uproarious din is in full swing, is that the foul spirits of 
disease are exorcised by the plentiful supply of sulphur 
fumes floating in the air and penetrating into every nook and 
cranny. His matter-of-fact nature refuses to believe that the 
monotonous fusilade of crackers will put to flight the fell 
and foul spirits that love to lurk about the haunts of men; 
for such is the supposed rationale of their use by the Chinese, 
therefore, at all joyous events — such as marriages, proces- 
sions, saints' days, and feasts — immunity from ill has to be 
purchased by their explosion. In the Hong Shan District 
they are even discharged at the grave after the burial. The 
cylindrical stem of the bamboo has, perhaps, given the idea 
of the form of the firecrackers, and the crack made by the 
splitting of bamboo may also have been suggestive. The 
manufcicture of the universally used firecracker occupies tha 
time, and helps to fill the purses, of many women and children 



240 THINGS CHINESE. 

in some parts of the country. The cracker frames are 
tied, ends up, in bundles of the shape of a wheel, and the 
women and girls fill in the powder. Numbers of them may 
be seen thus employed, as well as busied with the other pro- 
cesses of the manufacture, in Macao, 

The following description of a pyrotechnic display will 
give an idea of Chinese fireworks : — 

'The Chinese are proficients in the pyrotechnic art, and the 
fireworks which were exhibited at the end of this entertainment were 
chefs d'amvre of skill— the four elements having been called into re- 
quisition to furnish animals, birds, fishes, and reptiles, both real and 
imaginary ; from whose bodies issued streams of flame. Five dragons 
ascended into the air, and were metamorphosed into fire vomiting lions; 
a huge bird, of some unkown species, fluttered in the air in a sheet of 
flame, presently a huge serpent crawled from out of the beak of the 
bird, and was lost to view in many tinted flames ; one large lantern 
ascended, in a mass of fire, from which smaller lanterns issued, v\-hich 
in their turn sent forth various and innumerable forms. On the back 
of an enormous fish was seated a portly mandarin, from whose al- 
dermanic corporation burst forth streams of fire, which appeared to 
cause intense delight, and excite the greatest merriment amongst the 
spectators. The last firework was by far the most beautiful and per- 
fect, being completely artistic in its details ; this represented a man- 
darin's house with the whole of the adjacent buildings belonging to 
the residence, the roofs being ornamented with bells and figures ; this 
burned for some time, and then changed into a mandarin seated in 
his sedan-chair, with the usual train of attendants, bearing flags, 
beating gongs, and carrying lanterns ; the effect of this mass of 
many-coloured flames, defining the outline of the various forms, baffles 
description ; and as the last sparks died away, we could have been 
tempted to follow Oliver Twist's example and asked for more.' 

FLOWERS.— The inhabitants of the 'Mowery Land,' 
as China is called, are fond of flowers. No lady is dressed 
without sweet-scented beautiful flowers stuck in her glossy 
black hair, and the lower classes are glad to copy their 
superiors whenever a holiday, or any event out of the 
common, gives them the chance to bloom forth in Nature's 
own adornments. Failing the natural, they have recourse to 
artificial flowers some of which are very well made, especially 
the pith flowers at Amoy, for which the place is famous. In 
most houses, and even shops, a vase or two is found, if no- 
where else, at least in front of the idol's shrine, where some 
lovely chrysanthemums, white, yellow, or red, add a touch of 



FLOWERS. 241 

colour ov beauty to the formal primness of the set and stifT 
furniture. 

At China New Year, flowers are all the rage. The 
beautiful white and yellow narcissus with its long lance- 
shaped stiff green leaves is par excellence the New Year's 
flower. It is considered lucky to have the first bud open on 
New Year's Day. Another variety has the leaves all gnarled, 
being trained like crab's claws, and the plant, instead of 
being tall and upright, is reduced by art into a curled and 
curious-shaped looking object. Another essentially New 
Year's flower is the fiu-chimg fu (Enkyanthus reticulatus). 
Each blossom, about half an inch in length, hangs down like 
a miniature bell from the woody branches, while the delicate 
green of the new springing leaves forms a fine shade of 
contrast to the pink and white of the innumerable tiny 
flowers. These are not grown in the house, as the first is, 
but branches of them are stuck into the quaint looking vases. 
A branch of flower culture which we quite neglect in the- 
West is that of fruit-blossoms. The Chinese cut off the 
branches of fruit trees as they burst into bud, and the del- 
icate tints of the peach, the white flowers of the plum, and 
the tender blossoms of the almond, are all eagerly sought f )r, 
to decorate their homes at that festive season of the year 
Another common form of flower decoration is the employ- 
ment of flower baskets. A wire framework, made into the 
shape of a basket, is used, and the buds and blossoms 
artistically arranged on it so as to completely hide it. These- 
are hung up in the room or at the doors, and diffuse a 
grateful od(nir through the heated apartments on a warm 
summer's day. They are largely employed at weddings, as 
well as at other times, nor are the designs confined only to 
flower baskets. 

There are no window plants, so esteemed by the better 
class of artisans amongst us, as well as by others higher in 
the social scale, but their place is sometimes taken by a- 
solitary plant, often some woody non-flowering shrub, which 
has been dwarfed with much ingenuity, and is tended witlx 





24.2 THINGS CHINESE. 

constant care — the ivhole object only some six inches in 
lieight. but a perfect little tree in his way. This idea is 
further developed at times, and a little rockery is produced, 
frightful in its ruggedness, — an idealised bit of mountain 
scenery — on projecting points of which toy arbours in 
earthenware are perched, little paths meander from one to 
the other, crossing the lilliputian gorges and ravines on 
-equally small earthenware bridges, while below, and in front of 
all, lies a tiny piece of water, in which gorgeous and grotesque 
goldfish swim about. The heights above are covered at 
-every vantage point with small clumps of dwarf bamboo, and 
numerous other equally small trees and shrubs clothe with 
greenness the bare masses of the dry rugged rock, all in 
proportion with the minuteness of this morsel of quaint 
imitation of nature's beauties looked at from a Chinese stand- 
point — the whole affair only being a foot or two in height. 
Infinite care and tender pains are taken in planting, watering, 
and tending, this microcosm of a landscape, thus revealing 
that the Chinese are not wanting in a love of Nature as seen 
through their goggle-like spectacles. 

Amongst flowers the tree-peony is highly esteemed, being 
called ' the King of Flowers.' The skill of the Chinese has 
been exercised in producing many varieties. Another flower 
much thought of is the lotus. There is a white, as well as a 
Ted, variety, and they are so highly cultivated as to cause the 
petals to spring from the seed-holes even. They are magni- 
£cent flowers with their delicately veined petals, quaint- 
shaped seed repositories, and curious peltate leaves. They 
are much used in Chinese decorative art, and form a fine 
throne for a god or goddess to sit on in a state of ecstatic 
and nirvana-like contemplation. 

It is impossible to even enumerate all the beautiful 
tlowers in Avhich the Chinese delight : the white tube-roses 
laden at the evening hour with heavy perfume, roses with 
but little scent, beautiful, double dahlias, lovely sweet-smelling 
magnolias, pure white lilies, superb camellias, chrysanthe- 
mums of different shades, and many others with no English 



FOOD. 243 

names, a mere list of which would fill pages, and the use of 
such terms as Tahemcemontrtna Coronarki jiore plena would 
frighten the majority of our readers. 

Most Chinese cut flowers are short-lived compared with 
those in the West. Bouquets and button-holes have not 
reached the Far East yet, as far as native use is concerned. 
Many Chinese flowers have been introduced into the lands of 
the West, and it is to be hoped that as foreign residents 
have many varieties of English flowers in their own gardens, 
the natives will in time add them to their stock of cultivated 
plants, the best of the floral productions of both sides of the 
globe being thus given in exchange. 

Much attention is bestowed on plants by the Chinese, 
and not a few monographs on flowers, such as the peony, 
and chrysanthemum, have been written describing the 
varieties and mode of culture, «&c., &c. 

Books rec'omvwnrh'd. — See Article on Botany. 

FOOD. — Most erroneous notions are current as to the 
food of the Chinese, for it appears to be a generally received 
-opinion that their common food consists of rats, cats, dogs, 
and mice. It would be almost as true to say that the only 
meat the French live on is that of horses, or that the English 
are fond of snails, because some people in both these countries 
esteem such as delicacies. Pork is the chief meat of the 
Chinese in the south — in fact, in some of the southern 
languages of China, the word meat is used to mean pork. 
The consumption of fish, both fresh and salt, is enormous. ^ 
Fowls are, also a favourite article of diet, and a little beef is ^ 
also eaten. 

There are one or two restaurants in Canton where dogs' 
and cats' flesh can be bought. The writer has seen the 
former hung up for sale in a shop, but both are rarely 
consumed in comparison with other kinds of meat and food. 
Our cats in Canton used to disappear, and one of them came 
iome one day all wet, as if it had just escaped from the pot, 

o 2 



244 THINGS CHINESE. 

but then we lived on the banks of the river, and the 
boat people, like the gypsies, are not very particular as to 
their food. Many of the respectable Chinese would feel as 
much disgust at the idea of eating dogs, cats, rats, and mice, 
as we do. We had at one time in our employ at Canton a 
boy, a young fellow named A-ling, Avho got the sobriquet 
of 'ratty A-ling' from his fellow servants, probably for the 
twofold reason of his father being a rat-catcher, and because 
when at home, he used to enjoy a meal of which the 
chief dish consisted of these rodents; but none of the othe;' 
servants would have touched one. , It is not an uncommon 
sight to see dried rats hung up in shops with dried ducks 
and a number of other dried-meats. A favourite dog of ours 
was once killed by a snake, and Vvhen committmg his body 
to the river, in Canton, a miserable leper seized 'hold of it 
and took it into his wretched little sampan, notwithstanding 
our warning as to the cause of the dog's "death. But in spite 
of all these facts, Avhich only show that some Chinese eat 
such food, we again repeat, it is not the case that dogs, cats, 
rats, and mice, form the staple articles of diet of the people 
as a whole. ■ ' f ; 

At the same time, there are other articles of food whicli 
to us appear as disgusting as our fondness for butter and- 
cheese does to the Chinese. It is not every foreign stomach 
that can stand the sight of hundreds of greenish-brown 
worms, fresh from the rice fields, hawked about the streets 
for sale ; nor do salted and pickled eggs, getting discoloured 
by age, and eggs high, from long keeping, prove agreeable to 
our palate, though why, we should so take our game and turn 
with disgust from an egg in a similar condition is a mystery 
to a Chinese. Silkworm grubs do not sound very tempting 
to a foreign ear, yet the Chinese are very fond of them. 

In some parts of China the poor people eat snakes ; for 
instance, in the neighbourhood of Amoy; but as far as the 
author could learn, it was the non-venomous ones that were 
eaten. In some districts of the Canton province, the same 
horrible reptiles form articles of diet, but it is a question 



FOOD. 245 

nvhether, under the same name, other reptiles of a simiarl 
shape and form may not be included. In Swatow, the author 
saw a man hawking long, brown snakes, in a basket, for food. 
There were three or four of them tied with strings round the 
neck, the strings being fastened to the top of the basket to 
prevent their escape. They are rather an expensive article 
of diet, costing about seventy cents each. They are used to 
make soup. 

Birds' nests, sharks' fins, and fish maws, come more 
under the name of curious articles of diet, than disgusting : 
for the first are gelatinous and not like 'ordinary birds' nests 
(See Article on Birds' Nests) ; and the second and third are 
so cleaned and washed that they are as clean as any articles 
eaten by us. 

In the South of China rice is the principal vegetable 
food, but instead of vegetables being an adjunct to the meat, 
as with us, the meat is taken as a tasty article with the rice, 
which is the staple article of diet. Either dried, salt, or 
fresh vegetables are eaten at nearly every meal. 

The Chinese, like the French, have nominally two meals. 
One about 8 or 10 o'clock in the morning, and the other at 5 
or 6 in the evening, or thereabouts. With the poorer classes 
these consist of a number of bowls of rice — cooked till so dry 
that each grain is separate- — a little pork or fish, salt or 
fresh, and some fried vegetables. Everything of meat kind is 
choped up fine, as- the Chinese would think it barbarous to 
cut up anything at the tableland also to enable the chop- 
sticks to pick it up it has to be in little pieces. A drink of 
tea from the rice bowl finishes the frugal meal. The dinner 
is the same as the breakfast. This then is the ordinary 
everyday food of millions in the South of China, and costs only 
about a couple of dollars a month. The more a man has, 
the more he expends on liis food both as regards quality and 
quantity, and as a cons.equence he has a more varied fare. 
Though nominally only taking two set meals a day, nearly 
every one talf,es, a snack about the middle of the day, it may 



246 THINGS CHINESE. 

be only a few cakes, as the Chinese clerks in the Government- 
offices in Hongkong indulge in ; it may be a bowl of fish 
congee, or some other tasty soup or dish from the numerous 
restaurants, or from some of the many refreshment stalls, 
stationary and peripatetic. 

Some of the hard-toiling labourers, when there is a con- 
stant demand on physical strength or muscle, take a number 
of meals to prime them up for their work, such for instance 
as some of the boatmen on the rivers in the South of China, 
who work from daylight to sunset, and to whom fi.ve meals a 
day are allowed, when in work. 

Chinese food, like Frfnch, does not consist of roasts, but 
of a multitude of made-up dishes. Peanut oil and soy are- 
added to them, and soups and broths are much taken. 

The Chinese as far as their own food is concerned, are 
born cooks. Among the lower classes almost any man can 
turn his hand to preparing the simple dislies, and in workraens'' 
messes it is the youngest hand (the apprentice) who has the 
drudgery of the cooking to do. 

The dinners to which the foreign residents or travellers 
are sometimes invited by the Chinese, bear about the same 
relation to an everyday dinner, that a Lord Mayor's or Fish- 
mongers' Hall dinner does to an ordinary one given by pater- 
familias in the bosom of his family. As a sample of these grand 
dinners in Hongkong the menu of the one to which the Duke of 
Connaught was invited will be found below. We must, 
however, state that some of the dishes were added for the 
benefit of the foreign visitors who wanted something more 
substantial than the numerous broths and slops of a Chinese 
fine dinner, for one rises from such a function with a vague 
feeling of having tasted of an infi.nite variety of unknown 
dishes, but, notwithstanding the hours spent at the table,, 
with an unsatisfied feeling that would require a good. 
English dinner of solid food to remove. 



FOOD. 24>r 

MENU. 

1. Birds' Nest Soup. 2. Stewed Shell Fish. 3. Cassia Mushrooms. 

4. Crab and Sharks' Fins. 5. Roast Beef (i\ I'Anglaise). 

6. Koast Gliicken and Hani. 7. Pigeons' Eggs. 

8, ' Promotion ' (Boiled Quail, &c.) 9. Fried Marine Delicacies, 

10. Roast Turkey and Ham (il I'Anglaise). 

11. Fish«glills. 12. Larded Quails. 13. Sliced Teal. 

14. Peking Mushrooms. 15. Roast Pheasant (A, I'Anglaise). 

1(5. Winter Mushrooms. 17, Roast Fowl and Ham. 

18. Beche-de-Mer. li). Sliced Pigeon. 
20. Snipe (a, I'Anglaise. 21. Macaroni (k la Peking). 

SIDE DISHES. 

Cold Roast Sucking Pi?. 

Cold Roast Fowl. Cold Roast Duck. 

Cold Roast Mutton. ■ 

Table dishes. 

Cold Sausages. 

Prawns. Preserved Egg's. Livers. 

&c., &c., &c. 

FRUITS. 

Preserved Apples. 

Citrons. Tientsin Pears. Pomegranates. Carambolas. 

Greengages. Pine Apples. 

&c., &c., &c. 

. (PASTRY. 
Sweet Lotus Soup. Almond Custard. Rice. 
&c., &c., &c. 

WINES. 

Champagne (Krug). 

Claret. Orange Wine. Rice Wine. Rose Dhu. 

• Optimus ' Wine. Pear Wine. 

We give a few Chinese receipts which we have trans- 
hited from a Chinese Cookery Book : — 

Steamed Sharks' Fins. 

The manner of washing sun-dried sharks' fins is [as follows] : — 
First take the fins [as bought] and place in a cooking pan, add wood- 
ashes and boil in several waters. Then take out and scrape away the 
roughness [on the fins]. If not clean, boil again, and scrape ag:ain, 
until properly clean. Then change the water and boil again. Take 
out, take away the flesh, and keep only the fins. Then boil once 
again. Put in spring water. Be careful in changing water, and 
thoroughly soak them, for it is necessary that the lime-taste should 
be taken out of them. Then put the fins into soup, stew three times- 



-248 THINGS CHINESE. 

till quite tender. Dish in a bowl, placing crab meat below them, and 
add a little ham on the top. The taste is clear and chiirty (i.e. neither 
tender nor tough, something like the taste of pomeloes at times). 

Chicken with the liquor of Fermented Rice. 

Take the bones out of a chicken and steam till just ready. 
Take out and let it cool. Cut into thin slices. Take gelatinous rice, 
which has been fermented with yeast and water add||l, and cook with 
this far two hours, afterwards add the juice expressed from fresh 
ginger, soy, sesamum, and oil, of each a little. Mix together with 
boiled peanut oil. Dish and add fragrant herbs. 

Genii duck. 

Take a fat duck. Open and clean. Take two mace of salt and 
rub over it both outside and in. Put into an earthen dish and take 
oi/afi spirits one cup, and put the cup with the spirits inside the duck. 
Do not let the spirits spill on to the duck ; only the vapour of the 
spirit is wanted. Steam over water till quite tender. Lift out the 
wine-cup into a bowl. Done in this way, there is no need of minor 
vegetables. 

THE FORETGNER IN FAR CATHAY.— \i the 

record of Chinese intercourse with the West is interesting, it 
must be admitted that the accounts of the adventures and 
travels of foreigners in the distant land of Cathay are also 
full of interest and adventure. Are they not to be found 
Tecorded in the innumerable volumes published during the 
past few centuries; are they not chronicled in the old- 
fashioned language of mediseval writers, so full of wonders 
as to astound their contemporaries who often would have 
none of these travellers tales, and treated them as Baron 
Munchausens? 

The achievements of commerce, though in the general 
written in a soberer strain, sometimes almost approach the 
interest of a romance. There are fragmentary records of the 
early trade of the Chinese with neighbouring and distant 
nations in the dim remote periods of antiquity; but the 
origin and earlier transactions of this primitive period are 
lost in the hazy oblivion of ancient times. The Serica vestis 
tempted the practical Roman merchants to undergo hardships 
and difficult journeys of which the majority of our present- 
day merchants know but little; nor less adventurous were 
the long journeys of the Arab traders. The Portuguese, who 
took such a leading position in the van of nations in the 



THE FOREIGNER IN FAR CATHAY. 219 

sixteenth century, had the honour of being the pioneers of 
modern European commerce to China, in the-year A.D. 151G. 
They were followed in later years by the Spanish, Dutch, 
and Russians. 'The intercourse of the English with China, 
thoucjh it commenced later than other maritime nations O'f 
Europe, has been far more important in its consequences, 
and their trade greater in amount than all other foreign 
nations combined.' It commenced in A.D. 1635. American 
trade with China began in A.D. 1784-. {See Article on Trade). 

At the present day there are different settlements of 
foreigners at different ports on the coast and on the large 
rivers, while, scattered here and there throughout the empire, 
may be found some solitary individuals and families. 

The larger proportion of foreigners in China at the 

present day are British subjects. In 1890 the different 

nationalities in China were represented as follows : 

French ....589 

Germans 64S 

Italians 74 

Japanese 883 

Portuguese ...'...610 
Russians 131 

making a total of 8,081. 

It mtist be remembered that Hongkong and Macao are 
not included in this return, as they are not a portion of the 
Chinese empire politically, though as far as geograpliy is 
concerned they are. The total of Europeans and Americans 
in the British Colony of Hongkong, by the census of 1891, 
was 8,54^, or total British and Foreign community 10,44<6. 
According to returns made in 1879, there were 4,476 
Portuguese in Macao, and 78 of other nationalities not Chinese. 

An interesting subject to enlarge upon would be the 

benefits that this foreign intercourse with China has conferred 

•on her, as well as a view of the other side of the case, but, 

though tempting, we must forbear. 

Batiks rc'CODnjiendad.^Ainongsi, othev books that might be named as 
containing interesting notices of foreign intercourse Avith China, maj' be 
mentioned William's ' Middle Kingdom,' ' The Chinese Repository,' and 
■* The China Review.' 



Austrians 65 

Brazilians 2 

Belgians 28 

British 3,317 

Danish 81 

Dutch 4.1 



Spanish 304 

Swedes and ) 
Norwegians J "" ■'•' 
United States, \ . ,., 
Citizens ot the J ' ^-^ 



250 THINGS CHINESE. 

FORFEITS.— The Chinese have a noisy game of 
forfeits often played at the dinner-table at feast times. It 
consists in the player flinging out one or more fingers of the 
hand, and shouting out a number, when the other, who is 
playing with him, must instantly fling out as many of his 
fingers as will, if added to the number mentioned by his 
opponent, make up the total to ten, and while doing this he 
also shouts out the number of his fingers that he throws out. 
If a mistake is made, the one who makes it has to drink a 
cup of spirits as a forfeit. As they proceed, the party of six 
eight, or ten, at table, get more and more excited and 
boisterous, and the shouting at the top of their voices proves 
very exasperating to any Europeans who may unfortunately 
have their residences near to those of the Chinese. Such a. 
nuisance is this noisy game, that the playing of it after 11 
o'clock at night is prohibited in Hongkong by Ordinance. 

Looking at it from another point of view, this game of 
ehdi-mui (chai mooee) is a most interesting one, as the- 
Italians have a similar game, whicli they call morra, in 
France it is known as mourre, while the ancient Egyptian^j^ 
had some corresponding game as represented on their sculp- 
tures, and the Romans had their onicare digitis over which, 
butchers and their customers gambled for bits of meat, from, 
which game descended the Italian one already mentioned. 

FRUIT — One of the advantages of living in a hot 
climate is the quantity of fruit that one gets. After a long 
residence in the East, one notices on a i-eturn to Europe- 
unless it be in a plentiful strawberry season, how much more 
readily one can get fruit morning, noon, and night in the 
East than in the West. There is quantity in the East, but 
quality (with regard to many fruits) in the West; for after all 
few fruits are superior to those grown in hot-houses in England. 
This is, however, not so much the fault of the fruit, as the 
fault or misfortune of the cultivator ; for it is often due to 
circumstances over which he has no control. As a rule, 
unless the fruit is plucked Avhen yet unripe it will spoil 
with the heat before.^he alow means of locomotion available 



FRUIT. 25! 

would allow of its being conveyed to its destination. One 
can try to imagine what would become of our vaunted 
hot-house productions were they all plucked wliile green — 
pears picked while hard, strawberriers gathered before they 
were ripe, and a week taken in carrying them to the market. 

In the South of China, at Hongkong, Canton, and Macao 
(for in some other places, such as Ainoy, fruits are scarcer, 
though in Swatow they seem plentiful and of fine quality) 
there is a succession of fruit nearly the whole year through ; 
for not only is there such a variety of it indigenous to the 
soil, but so many different kinds liave been introduced during 
the last few centuries from foreign countries, that before 
one has had time to get tired of one sort, another has 
succeeded it— sometimes all too soon. Oranges are very 
common in the South, having been introduced from that 
part of China into Europe in A.D. 1548 by the Portuguese. 
The German name, Apfelsina, shows their origin, while the 
Italian name, Portugallo, points out their introducers in the 
West. The common coolie orange, however, differs rather 
from those brought to England from Spain at the present 
day, perhaps tlio change of soil, climate, and cultivation, 
have caused a difference in the fruit. The small kat-Uai, as 
they are called in China, but erroneously named ' mandarin 
oranges ' in London, have a fine acid taste, and were only 
brought into Europe in the present century. The real 
mandarin orange, or chil-shd kat, is a much larger fruit — 
larger even in diameter than the common coolie orange, 
which last is the shape and size of the ordinary kind in 
England. It is the finest of all, having a skin of a cinnabar 
red colour very loosely adherent to the fruit itself, the 
segments of which are much larger in every way than the 
small kat (though the shape of the two varieties is much 
the same), and without the acid taste, but very juicy and 
sweet. It is much dearer and rarer than the smaller one, or 
than the coolie, or ' tight skin.' 

Of plantains there are numerous varieties, amongst 
which may be named the coarse large ones — almost unfit to 



252 THINGS CHINESE. 

eat raw — the ' dragons' tusks/ ' fragrant plantains,' ' over-the- 
hill plantains,' and others. One sort or another, with but 
few breaks, carries one through the year, while the oranges 
are a winter fruit. 

Amongst other indigenous fruits in the Canton province, 
may be named : — first, the whampee, as it is generally spelled, 
a yellow skinned fruit, as its name implies, and pendent 
in clusters from the glossy-leaved trees which produce it, 
about the size' of a grape, tart, and nearly filled with two, 
three, or four, comparatively speaking, large and greenish 
stones. Second, the li-chi, better known in England by 
the dried ones, which are exported there in some quantities, 
but the pulp of which, being shrivelled into a dryish, sweetish, 
black substance round the dark stone, gives no idea of the 
taste of the fresh fruit. The skin, when fresh, is more like 
a shell, being rough and of a bright, red colour, like a very 
large round strawberry, when seen at a distance. Inside this 
is a thin white membrane, enclosing the watery translucent 
pulp of a sweetish taste surrounding the brownish-black ovoid 
stone.- The colour of the fruit is like that of a glass of water 
with a few drops of milk mixed in it. There are two or three 
kinds of li-chis, the best variety has a very small stone. Third, 
the lung-ngan or 'dragons ' eyes,' is a fruit about the size of a 
li-chi with a yellowish-green skin, a large stone, and a watery 
pulp of a disagreeable, rawish taste, though the Chinese and 
a few Europeans are fond of it. Fourth, the lo-quat, which 
Williams describes as a kind of medlar. There is a thin 
yellow skin adherent to the fruit, and within, in a cavity in 
the centre of the fruit, is a seed or two. The fruit is not 
unpleasant in taste. 

The peaches, when ripe, are good, though smaller than 
the English hot-house ones. There are two or three varieties 
of the common kind, one being the Eagle bill, with the point 
prolonged and a curious kind, somewhat like a very small apple 
in shape but more flattened, the stone inside partaking of the 
spheroid form. - 



FRUIT. 253 

There are two varieties of pear ; one lianl, like a turnip, 
rather sweet in taste, but better when cooked, and srrowin"- 
in the South ; the other conies fVoUi Tien-tsin, and is much 
nicer, being sweeter and more juicy in its turnipy Substance. 
Grapes are also brought from the North, a few are grown in 
the South, but very different are both pears and grapes fnjm 
English ones. Apples come from the North of China, but 
are very spongy in taste. 

The mango is a flattish, oblong fruit of»a bright, yellow 
gold colour and very nice, having, however, a slight tur- 
pentine taste. It is a fruit overflowing in its juiciness. 
The best come from Saigon and Manila, whence they are 
brought over in steamers. 

China has not only given the orange to Europe, but has 
on the otlier hand benefited by the introduction of not a few 
fruits from other parts of the world, amongst which may be 
mentioned the pineapple, which was cultivated as early as 
A.D. 1594, in China, 'to which it was brought from the 
Western shore of America through the Philippines.' The 
custard apple also, as it name in Chinese— /cm-^ai-c/it, 
foreign li-chi — implies, is a foreign introduction, and is 
identical with the sweet sop of the West Indies. Besides this 
there is that most curious of fruits, the carambola, called 
by the Chinese the ydng-t'b, or foreign peach, though why 
this name should have been selected is a mystery, for when 
cut through, it looks like a star with five rays. By Europeans 
it is also known as the Cape gooseberry. There is another 
variety called the sdm-nirn, which is sourer than the other. 

There is also the guava, having a smell something 
like onions. The Amoy pumelo is ^ fine fruit, the shaddock 
of the West Indies. There are two or three varieties 
of persimmons ; a yellow hard kind, a bright red, soft 
sort, about the size and shape of a middling sized apple, 
and a small, red variety somewhat like a small egg. There 
are also several varieties of plums, and the sour arbutus, 
which, however, is sweeter and better at Swatow than at 
Canton. The jack-fruit is also found in China, and the 



254 THINGS CHINESE. 

roseapple, a highly scented fruit about the size of a small 
apple and of the form of a hollow sphere, the seeds being inside 
the hollow part. The pomegranite. as produced here, is not 
eatable, consisting mainly of a dry mass of seeds. In the north 
of China the fruits are more of the European type — apricots 
and strawberries, besides some we have already mentioned. 

GARDENS. — Here is again a word, like many other 
words, which represents a different idea in China from what 
it does in the West. One who comes to China prepared to 
see the beautiful beds, the grouping of colours, and blending 
of shades, the massing of foliage, the parterres, the trim 
gravel Avalks, the grass lawns, and the tout ensemble that 
goes to make up the idea represented by the word garden 
amongst us, must be prepared to be disappointed. In their 
place are fantastic masses of artificial rockwork, or pools 
filled with the large, rich, green, disc-like leaves of the lotus 
while the formal but lovely red flowers give some warmth or 
colour to the scene. A Chinese garden must have a sugges- 
tion, at least, of water : if nothing else, a tiny pond with 
artificial rockwork and a bridge — a veritable arch — up which 
one climbs to its top and descends on the other side. At 
times, as on the earth's surface, water abounds more than 
the dry land, for numerous sheets of water take up the space 
which would be occupied in Western lands by flower beds ; 
but still the flower beds are not foregone : in other words, 
the Chinese have no flower beds on land, but their flower 
beds are in the water; for the still surface of the ponds is 
embellished with the large, round, peltate leaves of the lotus, 
having a stiff beauty of their own, relieved in the summer 
months by the many petaled, purple, chalice-like flowers borne 
on their long, green stalks above the leaves, and rising from 
the underlying mud — a Buddhist emblem; for 'as it lifts up 
its buds out of the slimy ground to a greater or less height 
above the water, unfolding its leaves and flowers, on whose 
spotless petals no traces are to be found of the mire from 
which it has sprung, so the souls of men * * rise from the 
.slime of sin, by their own power and eflFort, to difierent 



GARDENS. 255 

lieights. and reach the blessedness of Nirvana.' Later on 
when the petals are scattered and have floated aMay like 
tiny boats, the green an(;l curious shaped seed vessels are 
seen. Bridges, as we have said, cross these ponds, while 
kiosks, or summer-houses, are placed here and there, in the 
midst of the water or on land, as fancy suggests. Here 
picnics or summer parties are held, and the literary tastes of 
the guests are met by the quotations from the classics hung 
up by the hundreds under the roofs of the sheltered walls, 
while the votaries of the histrionic art have their tastes pro- 
vided for by a stage erected especially for that purpose. 
Larger buildings are scattered about the grounds, fitted with 
the straight-backed and antique-looking blackwood chairs, 
matched with teapoys and sofas, while rustic-looking 
stools stand about, formed each of a mass of rock, supported 
on a wooden stand of three legs. Those who have not been 
in the tropics know nothing of the luxury of one of these 
cold, smooth, stone seats on a hot summer's day. 

The plants are ranged in rows in hundreds of coarse, 
earthenware pots, or at the best, green glazed ones supported 
on similar stands or on' wooden ones. Very few, if any, 
flowers are planted in the ground. Plants of privet are 
trained into figures of animals and men, to which eyes, hands, 
feet, and hats of earthenware are added. Long rows of these, 
interspersed with flowers and shrubs, all in flower pots, line 
the walks. Trees are allowed to grow in certain places, but 
there are no ferneries, no glass-houses, and, though the 
minutest care is taken in the cultivation, the results do not 
produce what we would look upon as a garden. Gardens, in 
this Chinese sense of the terra, are attached to temples, to 
ancestral halls, or form the pleasure grounds of wealthy 
gentlemen, and are sometimes, in the latter case especially, 
of considerable extent. ]\[ost Chinese who can afford it, or 
who have the space for it, have a few flowers, or shrubs, in 
pots, some rockery work, and a little water with gold fish, in 
the inner part of their house, or congeries of buildings which 
do duty for a mansion. 



256 THINGS CHINESE. 

GEOGRAPHY.— The China of to-day is not the China 
of ancient times ; its boundaries have extended greatly while 
the history of the Middle Kingdom was being made. Unlike 
England, which had to go beyond the sea to add to her empire, 
the nucleus of the Chinese people had all around them their 
grand future, and having acted well up to their possibilities^ 
these have developed into the actualities of their present 
extended dominions^ — dominions which, with all their 
tribute bearing neighbours, form the most extensive 'ever 
swayed by a single 'power in any age or any part of the 
world.' The germs of this mighty realm are supposed to be 
found some thousands of years before Christ in a nomadic 
people in the present pi'ovince of Shen-si. Settling in villages, 
they become tradesmen and agriculturists, and from the dim 
mists of myths and tradition, amidst which scarce anything 
can be seen clearly or Avith certainty, we find the empire 
growing, getting the sea-board as a boundary, and extending 
its limits, We do not intend in the course of "this short 
article to give a historical account of the geographical growth 
of the empire. It would lead us, were we to do so, far 
beyond our limits, and its scope would necessitate an account 
of all the petty states into which, at times, China was divided. 
Suffice it to say, that for many centuries China did not extend 
beyond the great River, the Yang-tsz-kiang. Eventually 
, an offshoot was sent south into the eastern portion of 
the present Kiang-nan, and, like the rootlets from the banian 
tree, grew and formed finally another trunk to support the 
tree of empire, which was destined to gradually cover the 
whole land. For a long period the extreme South of China 
was not embraced in the realm except as a tributary state 
or with spasmodic attempts at Government, but at last the 
bonds which united it with the northern portion were 
strengthened until it formed an integral portion of China. 

The present dynasty has recovered much of the territory 
that was lost under the last, the Ming, till now it is nearly 
equal to what it was under Kublai Khan, when Marco PoL> 
writes of him 'in respect to number of subjects, exteiit of 



GEOGRAPHY. 25T 

territory, and amount of revenue, he surpasses every sovereign 
that has heretofore been or that now is in the world,' In' 
184<0. it was estimated that the Chinese Emperor ruled over 
5,300,000 square miles, from lat 48° 10' N, to long. 144-° 50' 
E. in the N.E. part of the empire, to the island of Hainan in 
the south, in lat. 18^ 10' N. and on the extreme West to 
long. 74° E. It has since lost about half a million square 
miles, which have gone to add to the dominions of the other 
colossal empire of the world, Russia, which is China's neigh- 
bour in the North, while more is apparently going the same 
way in the shape of Manchuria. England and France in the 
colonial empires also touch her territories in the south, * Of 
the 12,000 miles which form the land girdle of China, 6,000 
touch Russian territory, 4,800 British territory, and only 400' 
French, while 800 miles may be described as doubtful.' Japan 
has also, with the last war, by the acquisition of Formosa, been 
brought into near neighbourhood to China. Since the 
greater part of the above was written, Germany has likewise 
established herself on the coast of Shan-tung at Kiao-chao, 
Russia has obtained Port Arthur, and the French lay claim to 
Kwong Chau Wan in the South. England has also obtained 
a lease of laud at the back of the Kauluns; Peninsular and 
some islands. What the near future has in store for China 
remains to be seen. Will this great empire so loosely knit 
together remain intact or will it fall to pieces from the 
combined pressure from without and the corruption and 
disintegrating forces from within ? 

In shape, the Chinese empire approaches a rectangle, 
whose circuit is 14,000 miles, or more than half the 
circumference of the world ; her coast line is roughly 
stated to be 4,400 miles. Tliis vast empire naturally 
divides itself into the three divisions of China proper, 
Manchuria, and the Colonial Possessions. 

China proper embraces the whole of the eighteen 
provinces, as well as the large island of Hainan ; Manchuria 
lies to the North of Corea and part of China proper ; and the 
Colonial possessions include Mongolia, Hi, Kokonor, and. 
Tibet. 

p 



258 THINGS CHINESE. 

These eighteen provinces cover about 2,000,000 square 
miles. It would take seven Frances, or fifteen Great Britains 
and Irelands, to cover the same extent of ground. China 
is surrounded by different mountain chains, forming a wall 
almost all round it, with their different ranges, such as the 
Altai, the Stanovai, the Tien-shan, and others; also four large 
chains occur inside the boundaries, assisting in delimiting 
territory, the highest peaks of some of which are snow-clad 
ihe whole year through ; some of the mountains in Yun-nan, 
in the south-west of the empire, are the same. 

A great part of China is divided into three great basins, 
-drained respectively by the Yellow River, say 2,500 miles 
long, the Yang-tsz-kiang, 3,000 miles long, while the Canton 
Hiver and its numerous tributaries drain 130,000 square 
miles. We cannot mention the other rivers, though they are 
by no means insignificant nor few, for ' the rivers of China 
are her glory, and no country can compare with her for 
natural facilities of inland navigation.' 

Among the lakes may be mentioned the Tung-ting, 
about 220 miles in circumference, and the picturesque 
Po-yang, with it numerous islands, 90 miles long by 20 
in breadth. 

Besides the three basins drained by the three great rivers, 
there is the Great Plain of 700 miles in lenirth, varvinsr in 
-width from 150 to 400 miles, having the same area as the 
plain of Bengal, drained by the Ganges. It supports an 
enormous population; in 1812, the number was 177,000,000 
that is two-thirds of that of Europe, being the most densely 
settled portion ' of any part of the world of the same size.' 

China may likewise be ' divided into the mountainous 
and hilly country and the Great Plain.' ( See Article on 
•Geology). The mountainous is nearly half of the whole of 
China, the hilly is in the southeast, another Great Plain is 
in the north-east. 

From the Yang-tsz to Hainan, the whole coast is studded 
with numerous islands and rocky islets. 



GEOGRAPHY. 259 

The most important Channels are that of Formosa, 
'between tlie Ishmd of Formosa and the mainland, and the 
Straits of Lui-chau, between the Island of Hainan and the 
Promontory of Lui-chau. 

The must noteworthy gulfs or bays are the Gulf of Liang- 
tung in Manchuria, the Gulf of Pe-chih-li in the province of the 
same name, and the Gulf of Tonquin in the extreme south. 

Among the principal promontories may be named that of 
Liang-tung, forming the Gulf of the same name, the Shantung 
promontory, and the Lui-chau promontory, already named. 

The principal seas are the Yellow, between Corea and 
China; the Eastern, between Japan and the Lew-chew Islands 
and China; and the China Sea to the south. 

In political geography, China proper is divided into the 
eighteen provinces, these again are subdivided into prefec- 
tures, the latter are formed of different kinds of districts, 
which may be compared to the counties in England. It is 
not an uncommon thing to group two of the provinces 
together for administrative purposes, such as the two Kwang 
— Kwang-tung and Kwang-si; the two Hu — comprising 
Hu-peh and Hu-nan. 

Of the principal cities, it is impossible to give an 

•enumeration, so numerous are they. The capital of each of 

the eighteen provinces would come under this category, some 

of them boasting of a million of inhabitants, such as Peking, 

Canton, arid others, while every province has numbers of 

important centres of commerce and government, such as the 

district cities and marts : the former taking the place of 

country towns and often having tens or hundreds of thousands 

of inhabitants; the latter forming centres of commercial 

activity and distributing centres for agricultural produce, &c., 

to the surround country districts. 

Boohs rrroni mended. — 'Historical Atlas of the Cliinese Empire,' by 
E. L. Oxenhani, gives maps of China during successive dj-nasties and 
shows in a striking form the geographical growth of the Empire, while the 
preface is most interesting. Several works are in existence dealing each 
with one province, such as 'La Province Chinois du Yiin-Nan,' par Emile 
Rocher. and 'Shan Tung : A Chinese Province' by A. Armstrong, f.e.i.s. 

p 2 



260 THINGS CHINESE. 

GEOLOGY. — The geology of the Chinese empire has- 
not been fully investigated. When it is remembered that vast 
tracts of country have not yet been trodden by the man of 
science, it will be seen how much remains to be done towards 
the acquisition of a full knowledge of the geological conditions- 
of the large portion of the globe ruled over by the Chinese. 

In the centre of China is the great alluvial plain pro- 
duced by the large rivers, the Yang-tsz-kiang and the 
Yellow River, as Egypt has been created by the Nile. The 
great quantities of silt brought down by the Yellow River,, 
combined with other causes, such as deforestation, &c., 
produce the periodical floods and cause 'China's Sorrow,' as 
it has been aptly termed, to seek new means of reaching the 
sea. The Yang-tsz-kiang, which has been styled 'The Girdle 
of China,' carries its silt more out to sea than the Yellow 
River does. The land it has made during its existence must 
have been enormous, for it has been estimated that it dis- 
charges 770,397 cubic feet of water per second into the sea, 
and the 'amount of suspended material carried down every 
year to the sea at 6,428,858,255 cubic feet.' An island 32: 
miles long by 10 broad has been formed since the fourteenth 
century in the estuary of the Yang-tsz. This mighty river 
takes the third place in the list of the largest rivers in the 
world, the Amazon and the Congo heading it, and the Miss- 
issippi coming fifth. It has been calculated that the Y'^ang- 
tsz, the Yellow River, and the Pei Ho, would in sixty-six days 
form an island a mile square in the sea, and in 36,000 years 
the Gulfs of Pe-chih-li and Liau-tung, the Yellow Sea, and 
the Eastern Sea as far south as about half way between 
Ning-po and Wen-chow, and as far east as about mid-way 
between the coast of China and Japan, would become solid 
ground. Passing from the future to the past it has been 
reckoned that it has taken 20,000 years for the delta of 
this gigantic river to be formed. The oscillations of land 
level do not appear to have had much share in its formation, 
as they, in this portion of China, seem to have been of the 
slightest, during this period at all events. 



GEOLOGY. 261 

Even during the historical period, the changes appear 
to have been great, for the Shii Xing, which contains the 
most ancient account of Chinese geography, mentions three 
mouths of the Yang-tsz, though only one now remains. At 
the time of Christ a 'great part of the Shanghai plain was not 
yet reclaimed from the sea ; and the Woo-sung River or 
Soo-choAv Creek was also anciently a large river twenty li 
(6 or 7 miles) broad at what is now the city of Shanghai.' 
The land has extended further out into what was then the 
,sea by fifty miles. With regard to the underlying stratum 
or strata. Dr. IMacgowan says : * Whether it rests immediately 
'Upon granite, which forms the basis of the nearest mountain ; 
or immediately upon new red sandstone, of which some of 
tlie adjacent hills are composed ; or upon limestone, which is 
found protruding at the Great Lake (Tai-hii), it is impossible 
for us without more imformation to determine.' In A.D. 
1865 an artesian well revealed at a depth of 248 feet gray 
sand beneath 10 feet of loam, and a few feet lower pebbles ; 
at 240 feet a fragment of limestone. 

At one time the Shan-tung promontory Avith the con- 
tiguous mountainous portion of the province was an island, 
and the province of Kiang^su had no existence. The 
steppe-like plains of Pe-chih-li show their recent elevation 
above the sea. On the other hand, there are evidences of the 
encroachments of the sea on the land to a no less remarkable 
extent. The eastern border of the continent has experienced 
a slight depression, and the real eastern border included 
Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, Formosa, tlie Liu 
Chiu Islands, Japan, and the Kuriles, to Kamtschatka. 

Among the most interesting features of the geology of 
North China is the loess. It covers a vast extent of country 
'extending over thousands of square miles and often hundreds 
of feet in thickness,' and is a brownish-coloured earth; it is 
split up into numerous clefts ; is of a terrace formation, and 
steppe-like contour ; but admirably adapted for agricultural 
purposes ; and lends itself to the picturesque most effectively. 
•One opinion about it is that ' it is a sub-aerial deposit, dating 



262 THINGS CHINESE. 

from a geological era of great dryness before the existence- 
of the Yellow and other rivers of the northern provinces.' 
Another, and the latest, is that it is a sedimentary deposit,, 
and probably of marine origin. 

In Southern China, between Canton and Hankow, the 
succession of rocks is first, granite ; second, grits and slates ; 
these are covered by old limestones, on which rests another 
series of limestone strata, and over some coal-beds lies red 
sandstone. Of this part of the country it has been written : — 

' The whole country is *'■ * "■•' divided into several isolated 
basins any one of which can be studied by itself, whilst in most 
instances, the lines of demarcation follow roughly the political divisions 
of the empire. Amongst these natural divisions of the country, we may 
adduce the provinces of the two Kwaiig, Kiang-si, Fuh-kien and Che- 
kiang, Ngan-whui, Kwei-chau, Kiang-su, &c., — all forming separate- 
districts, divided by ranges of mountains and distinguished each by 
geological characteristics.' 

' The central and eastern portions of Kwang-tung, contain, 
within a limited area, a connected sequence of formations, ranging 
upwards from the early paleozoic rocks of Hongkong and the adjacent 
coast and islands, to the new red sandstone of Canton and the delta 
of the Pearl River, intermixed with some traces of still later formations,, 
and being accompanied by masses of rocks of igneous origin extending 
probably over a still more prolonged epoch.' ' From the neighbour- 
hood of Canton to the sea, the rocks are composed of red sandstone 
resting on granite, until, on reaching the clusters of islands that line 
the coast, these are found to consist of a coarse granite only, crossed' 
by perpendicular veins of quartz, over the irregular surfaces of the 
islands, and at the summits of the highest, are strewn immense 
rounded blocks of the same rock. They are generally imbedded in 
the coarse earth, which is a disintegration of the general substance of 
the islands, and, as this is washed from under them, roll down the 
steep declivities until they reach a level space, and commonly stud 
the sandy margin of the islands with a belt of piled rocks, some of 
them many tons in weight. The scenery of these islands has often 
been compared to that of the Hebrides, and is quite as barren.' 

' The island of Kulangsu (Amoy) is typical of the coast formation 
of Southern China ; granite is its principal feature, and it seems to be 
a general, but by no means unexceptional, rule that along the coast, 
from South to North, the granite becomes coaser grained, less- 
micaceous and more felspathic' 

The following is an account of the country north of 

Amoy : — 

* Considerable diversity of the geological structure of the district 
from Amoy to Tam-Si, — the most northern portion of the province 
visited, — obtains ; this is not, however, the case with the Physical' 



GEOLOGY 263 

(Geography, as in the latter respect the whole country is a series of 
high mountains, the general character being physically very persistent 
although geologically ranging from the ingenite or granitic, plutonic, 
and volcanic rock at Amoy (as observed along the greater portion 
of the East Coast of China and typically represented in the island of 
Hongkong) the Transition or Metamorphic sedimentary rocks being 
developed in proceeding northwards, culminating in the Derivate 
rocks, the Subaqueous containing the whole series of the Paleozoic 
period, the Devonian, Carboniferous, and Permian systems being 
highly developed, particularly the Carboniferous ; and the Sub-aerial 
being represented in the Mesozoic period, principally by the upper 
new red sand-stone in the Triassic system. The whole country must 
have been subject, long after the Mesozoic period, to extraordinary 
convulsions of nature. One "fault" in the Carboniferous Group, 
which the writer had a good opportunity of studying, extended a 
distance of 8 miles; the mountain in which ihe '"fault" appeared 
being over 1,500 feet above the adjacent valley, standing at a scarped 
angle of about 8 degrees, exposing, amongst other groups of the 
system, the coal measures in numerous seams fully 300 feet thick. 

Shan-tung is a moet interesting province from a geological 
point of view. 

The following extract from ' Across Shan-tung,' by 
S. B. J. Skertchly, F.G.S., M.A.I., puts in a succinct form an 
account of the geological formation of the Eastern portion of 
China : — 

' Travelling northwards from Hongkong by Amoy, Foochow, 
Ningpo, Shanghai to Chefoo, we pass, speaking generally, from older 
to newer rocks. The granites of Hongkong with their associated 
beds of diorite and felspar porphyries are the oldest rocks of China, 
the backbone, geologically speaking, upon which has been laid down 
the newer beds which take the surface over by far the greater part of 
this vast empire. These rocks are again seen at Amoy and Foochow, 
are hiddden beneath newer volcanic rocks at Ningpo where the 
beautiful mottled volcanic agglomerate yields the fine building stone 
which adds such beauty to the architecture of .Shanghai ; then 
the land sinks down to the broad plain of the mighty Yangtsz, to be 
succeeded by old crystalline rocks, probably ofLaurentian age which 
run all the way to Chefoo on the Gulf of Pechihli, whose northern 
shores in Manchuria and Chihli are largely made up of beds 
belonging to the Carboniferous system. 

Travelling inland a similar series of rocks is found, the granites 
being overlaid by crystalline schist and gneiss and quartzites, over 
which again lie the carboniferous beds, with patches of volitic rock 
here and there, yielding as in Eastern Shantung beautiful fossil fishes. 

The granite rocks rise in bold hills and mountains, weathered 
into rounded masses, which oft-times become quite isolated, and stand 
like boulders upon the hill sides, or lie embedded in the well-known 
" decomposed granite " '-' *' ••'■ ; these boulders are simply harder 



264< THINGS CHINESE. 

masses of granite which have withstood the dissolving action of the 
elements ; they tell neither of frost-bound coasts, nor changes of level, 
nor volcanic outbursts but are stolid witnesses of the silent forces of 
rain and river, of tropic showers and burning suns and chilly nights. 

In marked contrast to the swelling contours of the granite series, 
are the jagged and gnarled hills and mountains of the crystalline 
schists, which beautify the landscape with every variety of crag and 
peak and sierra, the rocks themselves bent, twisted, and crumpled as 
though instead of being tough enough for neither millstones they were 
plastic as dough. 

Very different again are the limestone hills of the carboniferous 
system with their gentle flexures, fretted into picturesque castellated 
ramparts, and running in long lines along the dip.' 

The province of Shan-si is rugged. The southern part 
* presents a geological formation of great simplicity * * * 
There are coal formations and limestone,' and a plateau of 
later rocks — sandstones, shales and conglomerates of green, 
red, yellow, lilac, and brown colours. Some granite peaks 
rise to a height of 8,000 feet. " On the eastern side * * * 
rocks are made up of ancient formations or deposits of the 
Silurian age.' 

There are most extensive coal fields in China'. ' Most of 
the rocks belong to the paleozoic or early secondary ages ; 
the later deposits in the central and seaboard provinces at 
least being confined to a few sandstones and clays.' The 
great coalfields of China stretch from ' near Peking along the 
frontiers of Pe-chih-li and Shan-si, and thence through Ho- 
nan and Hu-peh, into the great coal and iron district of 
Hu-nan' 'The less important fields are those of Kiang-si, 
.Hu-peh, Ngan-hwui, Kiang-su, Cheh-Kiang, Fuh-Kien, and 
Kwang-tung.' They all belong Ho the true "coal measures" 
of the carboniferous system.' 

All kinds of minerals and precious stones are found in 

China. 

Boohs recommended. — There are numerous articles on the g'eology of 
certain districts and coal formations, &c.. &c., iu the ' Chinese Kecorder and 
Missionary Journal,' the 'Journals of the N. C. Branch of K.A.S.' and 
* Notes and Queries on China and Japan : ' as well as notices on geology in 
Williams's 'Middle Kingdom.' For North China, the great work in 
German by Baron von Richthoven, 'China,' is the standard work. See 
also 'Across Shan-tung ' by S. B. J. Skertchly, consisting of a series of 
Articles in the 'Hongkong Daily Press ' in September and October, 1892. 



GEOMANCY, OR FUNG-SIIUL 2(>5 

GEOMANCY, OR FUNG-SHUL— This superstition 
in connection with the worship of ancestors has the greatest 
hold on the Chinese mind. To them the whole of Nature is 
alive with influences for good or evil, revealed to those who 
have made their indications a study : the course of a stream, 
the trend of a mountain, the position of a clump of bamboos, 
the curve of a road, the site of a grave, and a number of 
•other things too numerous to mention, all form the visible 
manifestations to the initiated eye, of Nature's future actions, 
or the good and evil intentions of the departed dead. 

The rudiments of this magic art are to be found in 
ancient China, but it was not till the twelfth century that it 
was elaborated into the system of science, falsely so-called, 
that has now such a hold on the Chinese. Adopting what 
was popular and attractive in the modern school of Con- 
fucianism, and being already in consonance with the 
Taouistic and Buddhistic philosophies, this system, based to 
some degree on the rudiments of natural science, has subtly . 
laid hold of the whole being and existence of the Chinese 
people. They believe not only that the comfortable sepulture 
of their ancestors will redound to their own comfort, but 
that if the union of the elements, the nature of the soil, the 
configuration of the ground, and all the other things which 
enter into this fco'i'ago of nonsense are such as to produce a 
felicitous combination, that riches, honour, and posterity will 
be vouchsafed to them. It is these beliefs that cause the coffin 
to be so often kept for months or years unburied, for a site is 
being searched for which shall combine all that is productive 
of good to the children and grandchildren. Even when the 
eldest son has discovered such a site, and is confident that 
happiness and prosperity will be his lot, it may be that 
another son has found out that what will benefit his brother 
will not be productive of good to him, but of evil; consequent- 
ly the whole search will have to be gone over again till one 
favourable to all parties can be discovered. So many different 
elements come in, in determining the lucky sites, that the 
professors of geomancy are easily able to make a living out 



266 THINGS CHINESE. 

of the gullibility of their employers. When it is added that 
in building a house, in fixing on a site for an ancestral hall^ 
in commencing a temple, and in numerous other projects and 
businesses demanding the attention of the Chinese, these 
doctors of geomancy have to be consulted, it may readily be 
seen that, in the hands of clever and designing men, much 
room is open for earning an honest (?) penny. 

The compasses exposed for sale in such numbers in the- 
streets in Chinese cities are not mariner's compasses, Avhich 
are seldom to be met with, but geomancer's compasses, which 
contain the elements of their mystic art, by the aid of which 
they largely determine their judgments on sites and localities. 

Just one instance of how Fung Shui is troublesome to- 
Europeans in China : in the phraseology of this occult science- 
' when two buildings are beside one another, the one on the- 
left is said to be built on the green dragon and the one on 
the right on the white tiger. Now the tiger must not be- 
higher than the dragon, or death or bad luck will result/ 
Supposing now a European or American gets a site for a 
residence next to, and on the right hand side of, a native 
dwelling. Here then are all the elements ready for trouble ;, 
for, to begin with, the foreigner will naturally desire to erect 
a house more suited for habitation than the low abode whick 
would satisfy the average Chinaman. 

Another curious instance of the reasonings, or shall we 
rather call them insane vapourings, that its professors 
indulge in, will give a practical illustration of the workings 
of Fung Shui : when it was proposed to construct a telegraph 
between Canton and Hongkong, the ground of the opposition- 
against it was as follows : — Canton is the ' City of Rams,* 
or Sheep, the mouth of the river is known as the Tiger's 
Mouth ; the District opposite Hongkong is the ' Nine Dragons' 
(Kau Lung). What more unfortunate combination could be 
found — a telegraph line to lead the Sheep right into the 
Tiber's Mouth and amongst the Nine Dragons ! ! ! 



GINGER. 2()7 

It is this pseudo science which has so strenuously opposed 
the introduction of railways, telegraph lines, and foreign 
innovations, in the past or was made to do duty as an objection 
to them, but it has not been an insuperable obstruction, 
for whenever the Chinese Government has made up its mind 
to the introduction of any of the inventions of Western 
science. Fung Shui has not been allowed to be an obstacle, 
for, while pandering to its absurd ideas as far as is practicable 
without hindering the feasibility of their scheme, yet the 
populace, if obstructive, has usually been made to feel that 
the will of the rulers has to be obeyed. 

Boohs recomvu'Hdcd. — ' Fun^s Shui : or the Rudiments of Natural 
Science in China, by Rev. E. J. Eitel, M.A., Ph. D. The chapter ou 
' Ancestral Worship ' in Rev. B. C. Henry's ' The Cross and the Dragon,' 
and different pages under the heading of geomancy and geoniancers in 
Rev. H. C. Dn Rose's ■ The Dra^'on, Image, and Demon,' Williams's 
'Middle Kingdom,' Archdeacon Gray's 'China,' and Rev. J. Doolittle's 
' Social Life of the Chinese.' 

GINGER. — Most of the ginger produced in the world 
is furnished by the root of the Zingiber officinale (Roscoe) ; . 
but that from China, as well as Siam is the product of another 
plant, the Alpinia galangas ' yet, considering the wide 
distribution o( Zingiber officinale it is quite possible that tlie 
true ginger may also be cultivated in some parts of China.' 

It is grown largely in the Kwang-tung Province where 
it is found in nearly every part, the Miau-tsz aborigines 
even cultivating large quantities of it. The best and most 
in the neighbourhood of the city of Canton coming from the 
Niim-hoi District itself, in a portion of which the provincial 
city is partially situated. 

In another district, some days journey from Canton, three- 
tenths of the flat land and seven -tenths of the cultivated soil 
in the hills are planted with ginger. 

'A distinction is made between the flat land ginger '' * * 
which is generally soft and tender, and mountain ginger *■"' •'■' '' 
which is brittle and very pungent. This is generally used for home 
consumption ; the Chinese pickle it in vinegar. The expensive '- ** 

syrup ginger is almost exclusively consumed by foreigners or 

exported.' 



268 THINGS CHINESE. 

Ginger is also grown to a large extent in Hu-peh and 
Kiang-si where it is largely eaten in the green state. This 
ginger of mid-China is said to be very fragrant, but 'too 
sticky ' to make ' a very excellent preserve.' 

Ginger is used as a medicine in China. The author has 
«een it cure a violent headache when applied in the Chinese 
fashion, which is to heat fresh ginger in the fire, and slice in 
thin pieces which are stuck on the forehead and temples. 

The Alpinia galangas grows wild in Hongkong and 
forms when in flower a conspicuous object in the glens and 
on the hills sides with its narrow long: leaves and briijht 
panicles of flowers,, each flower being nearly an inch in length. 

GINSENG. — Kaempfer says that next to tea ginseng is 
the most celebrated plant in the whole Orient on account 
of its root. It has indeed well been termed the cure-all as 
the Chinese have a most wonderful faith in its curative and 
strengthening properties, for which reason it has been also 
styled ' the cinchona of China ' It is considered to be ' a cure 

for fevers and weaknesses of all sorts the chief and 

most costly medicine.' 

The plant belongs to the family of the Araliacete and the 

scientific name for it is Pamax Ginseng. It is found ' wild 

in the mountain forests of Eastern Asia from Nepal to 

2tlanchuria.' It formerly grew in Fuh-Kien, Kiang-nan and 

Shan-si; "their stock would seem to be extinguished or the 

plan of cultivation by seed, described in the "Pen Ts'ao " 

might have been given up in the face of the growing favour 

of the Manchurian wild plant.' Ginseng is one of the 

treasures of Manchuria. Dr. Lansdell in his book '' Through 

Siberia ' thus writes of it : — 

'Ginseng is found chiefly in the valleys of the upper Ussuri, 
where it is cultivated in beds, planted in rows. The earth must be a 
rich, black mould and loose; and when the plant has attained the 
height of four or five inches, it is supported by a stick. The beds are 
carefully weeded and watered and protected from the sun by tents 
or sheds of wood Wild ginseng is said to be the best. From May 
to September hundreds go out to seek the plant. '■'• * """ " The 
prices named * * for this root were almost fabulous, a single root 
being valued in Manchuria at from ^250 to ^300. I was told on the 



GIXSEXG. 2Gi> 

river that ginseng sells for ^^3,0 per Russian lb., but that in a bad year 
the Chinese count it as valuable as gold, and give up to ^40 per lb. *■' *-■ *- 
The root is straight, spindle-shaped, knotty, and up to half an inch 
in diameter, and eight inches in length. The leaves are cut off, 
and the root is boiled in water, apparently to remove some injurious 
quality : and when it has undergone fitting preparation its colour 
is a transparent white, with sometimes a slight red or orange tint ; its 
appearance then is that of a stalactite. It is carefully dried, wrapped 
in unsized paper, and sent to the market. 

Dr. Porter Smith, in the course of a long article on 

ginseng, says: — • 

'The root is carefully hunted for by Manchus, who boast that 
the weeds of their country are the choice drugs of the Chinese. 
The pieces, after carefully trimming with a bamboo knife and drying 
in still air, are made to assume something of the form of the human 
body. They generally do resemble a miniature human hand, the 
larger pieces being of the size of a man's little finger, with some two 
to four finger-like branching rootlets. They are yellowish, semi- 
transparent, firm, brittle to some extent, and of a sweet mucilaginous 
taste, accompanied with a slight bitterness. * " *. Fabulous 
stories are told of the finding of special depots of this root which is 
associated with guiding voices, stars, and other good and peaceful 
omens. * * *. The trade in the drug is a speciality. Great care 
is requied to preserve choice specimens from the effects of damp and 
the attacks of worms, to which the drug is very liable. This drug is 
prepared as an extract, or as a decoction, in silver vessels as a rule. 
c- c- c!_ Several cases in which life would seem to have been at 
least prolonged by the taking of doses of this drug, to as to allow of 
intelligent disposition of property, indicate that some positive efficacy 
of a sustaining character does really exist in this speciesof Ivywort.' 

Manchuria does not supply sufficient quantity to meet 
the constant demand for it, and Corea and Japan furnish it 
as well, but they (the Japanese and Corean) are not considered 
equal in quality to the first named variety. That found wild 
in Chinese Manchuria is a government monopoly, and is 
gathered • by detachments of soldiers detailed for this purpose.' 
The Emperor sometimes makes presents of it to high officials, 
as a mark of great favour. There is even a variety of it 
which is indigenous in the Appalachian range and which is 
exported from Philadelphia and Baltimore (U. S. A.) (and also 
from the Western States as well) to China. In 1877 nearly 
$700,000 worth were sent to the Celestial Empire. The trade 
is not increasing, of late years remaining ' stationary, owing 
to the gradual extinction of the plant [Panax Quinquefolius],^ 
which cannot be grown artificially with success.' 



270 THINGS CHINESE. 

GOVERNMENT.— The Government of China is that 
of an absolute, despotic monarchy. The Emperor rules by 
virtue of a divine right derived direct from heaven, and he 
is styled ' The Son of Heaven.' This divine right he retains 
as long as he rules in conformity with the decrees of heaven. 
When the dynasty falls into decay by the vices of its rulers, 
heaven raises up another who, by force of arms, the virtue 
of bravery, and fitness for the post, wrests the sceptre from 
the enfeebled grasp of him who is unfit to retain it any 
longer. This idea has exerted a beneficial effect on the 
sovereigns of China, who feel that on the one hand they are 
dependent upon high heaven for the retention of their 
throne, and who humbly and publicly confess their short- 
comings in times of floods and drought. On the other hand, 
though there is no House of Commons to exercise a check on 
the unrestrained power of the Sovereign, there is the general 
public opinion of the people, who, being educated in the 
principles that underlie all true Government, are ready to 
apply them to their rulers when they forget, or act grossly 
in opposition to, them. To see the system of patriarchal 
Governmeat carried out in its entirety, one must come to 
China. The Emperor stands in loco parentis to the common 
people and his officers occupy a similar position. The prin- 
ciples which have formed the framework of Government for 
millenniums among these ancient, stable, and peace-loving 
people, may be found in a study of the rule of the ancient 
kings, Yao and Shun, and their successors, and in the precepts 
inculcated by Confucius and Mencius. With all its defects, 
their system appears tobe better adapted for the punishment 
of the criminal classes amongst them and the prevention of 
their fraudulent bankruptcies than our systems, which are 
the outgroAvth of centuries of civilisation, not yet passed 
through by the Chinese, who consequently are not yet 
educated up to our standpoint. The unit in China is not 
the individual but the family, therefore it is impossible for a 
fraudulent bankrupt to settle his goods on his wife or family, 
3,s the family must make good his losses ; in the same way a 



GOVERNMENT. 271 

family is responsible for the good behaviour of its members : 
a neighbourhood for its inhabitants ; and an official foi- 
thosegoverned by him. Thus, results a system of ' mutual 
responsibility among all classes.' This acts as a great 
tieterrent of serious crime and defalcations ; and it is much t<> 
be regretted that in our rule of the Chinese, such a system 
could not have been carried out, with such modifications as 
to free it from its defects, instead of introducing a new system 
foreign entirely to their feelings and understanding. 

The right of succession to the throne in China 'is here- 
ditary in the male line, but it is always in the power of the 
Sovereign to nominate his successor from among his own 
<;hildren.' This nomination, most wisely, is not made public 
during the lifetime of the reigning Sovereign, thus prevent- 
ing intrigue and obviating all necessity for those bloody 
scenes which disgrace the accession of so many Eastern 
potentates to their thrones. 

The Emperor has two councils to advise him and to 
consult with. One is the Cabinet, or Imperial Chancery (the 
Nui Koh). A more influential body is the Council of State, 
or General Council, approaching more to the Ministries of 
Western nations, though necessarily quite unlike them. It 
meets in the Emperor's palace daily. Under these two 
councils are the Six Boards — Luk Po — their names give a 
pretty good idea of their functions : The Boards of Civil 
Office, Revenue, Rites, War, Punishment, Works — and a 
Naval Board has been added in recent years. 

There are other departments of government, one of 
which, the Censorate, deserves more than passing notice. 
On account of its peculiar duties it has attracted much 
attention from Western writers. In conjunction with some 
of the other Boards it forms a Court of Appeal ; and, with 
other departments of government, it deliberates on important 
affairs of State ; it exercises an oversight over all criminal 
<;ases ; and superintends the affairs of the metropolis. These 
duties call for but little remark, but it is the extraodinary 
powers that are vested in its members of censuring, not only 



272 THINGS CHINESE. 

the manner in which other officials have performed or 
neglected their duties, but even the conduct of the Emperor 
himself — powers that are often availed of in the interests of 
justice, with a boldness and courage most unusual under a 
despotic rule, that at times meet with their reward, and at 
other times call forth overwhelming censure and punishment 
from the Sovereign himself. When rightly used by a high- 
minded and conscientious official (for such are to be found in 
China) in the consciousness of right, and with the best 
' interests of the country at heart, these extraordinary powers 
must be productive of good, though many must be loath to 
use these privileges of outspoken speech for fear of the 
consequences which may recoil on their own heads, often 
indeed so serious, as to make the best intentioned hesitate 
before committing themselves. 

For the government of the provinces there is a perfect 
ramification of officials from superior to inferior, from the 
ten or twelve Viceroys of one or two provinces each, down to 
the petty officials. 

One very curious feature in Chinese official life is the 
manner in which judicial, military, naval, and fiscal duties 
are performed by one and the same official at diff"erent stages 
of his official life. He is transferred from one post to the 
other, irrespective of former experience in the particular 
duties of his appointment. With the introduction of Western 
naval vessels and military armaments this eclectic system of 
filling offices is bound in the long run to give way. Were 
bribery and corruption absent from official ranks, this 
complete system of officialdom, with all its business-like 
methods of accomplishing work, would produce mucli more 
beneficent results ; but a premium is put on ' squeezing,' as 
no official is paid a sufficient salary to meet his necessary 
expenses. Notwithstanding this, there are noble exceptions 
to the general rule of corruption, and these honest mandarins 
meet with the honour of the people who justly appreciate 
such conduct. They have no other rewards but this, and 
that of their own self-approving consciences, for such probity 



HAKKAS. 27» 

brings no pecuniary benefits in its train, indeed it often lands 
the noble man in the lowest depths of poverty. 

HAKKAS. — Who the Hakkas are is a question of some 
interest. We remember, when a boy, travelling in the in- 
terior of China, and coming across a village where the people 
spoke quite a different speech to that of the other inhabi- 
tants round them ; it is like this that the Hakkas are often 
situated in the midst of a population, quite distinct from them 
in language, differing in customs, to a slight extent in dress, 
and even in some of the idols worshipped. Those found in 
the South of China were not originally of that region, but 
their family genealogies show that they have come from the 
north, settling in some cases in different places till they have 
finally established themselves in their present surroundings. 
In certain districts they have monopolised the whole countrj^- 
side, as in the prefecture of Ka-ying-chow, in the Canton 
province, ' which is entirely peopled by Hakka,' while in other 
places they form a half, a third, or more, of the population, 
being interspersed among the Pun-tei, as the older Chinese 
inhabitants are termed. In. some places, partly peopled by 
them, they have settled on the higher land, leaving the 
Pun-tei to the low lying lands, and from this circumstance 
they have been called Chinese Highlanders by some, but the 
name is a misnomer, as it is only capable of local application, 
for in other places they are spread over the plains as well 
as the hilly- ground. They are not confined to the Canton 
province, where they are considered to form a third of the 
inhabitants, but are found in differents parts of China — in 
Kwang-si, in Fuh-kien, in Che-kiang, and in Formosa ; it has 
also been said that ' the chief part of the Kiang-si province ' 
is Hakka, and that the language spoken in the Capital, 
Nam-chang-fu, is Hakka. 

Their language is more akin to Mandarin, being a half- 
way house between Cantonese and Mandarin : * the Hakka 
dialect is the remnant of a phase of transition through which 
the common Chinese language passed in developing itself 
from Cantonese to Mandarin.' It is perhaps spoken by about 

Q 



^74 THINGS CHINESE. 

four millions of people in the Canton province alone ; but for 
more about their speech we must refer the reader to our 
article on Dialects in this book. The German missionaries 
and English Presbyterians have some most successful missions 
among this interesting people. 

The sexes are not so strictly separated in domestic life 
as is the case with some of the other Chinese ; nor do the 
women bind their feet. Perhaps this last might be taken as 
nn indication that they left their original home before 
foot-binding came into vogue, and, not having practised it 
at first, never took to it. 

Taken as a whole, they are a poor people, having to work 
hard for their living, though there are ricli men among them, 
as well as literary graduates. In dress the women differ 
somewhat from the Cantonese, their jackets being longer 
and reaching down nearly to their knees; their shoes have 
squarer toes ; they Avear a peculiar hat consisting of a broad 
brim with a valance of cloth round it ; the bunch of hair, 
done up on the top of the head, goes through the open 
crown. The women's ornaments are somewhat dissimilar, 
such as their bangles, which are made of thick silver, and of 
different patterns from those in use among the Puntei 
population. The earrings are also of curious construction; 
one kind, of silver, hooking through the ear and thickening 
up to the other end, while every short distance they are 
embossed with rings of silver ; another kind of earring 
is formed of tassels of silk. The Hakka children often have 
a ring of silver round their neck ; Cantonese childen do nut 
wear the same, but one or two of the attendants of the 
Chinese idols have such a ring. 

In the Straits Settlements there were, in 1891, as many 
as 16,736 Hakkas out of a Chinese population of 227,989. 

The Hakkas are a simple people, but very contentious, 
and they show a litigious disposition in the few cases which 
-occur in the English Courts in Hongkong ; for there are a 



JIAKKAS. 275 

great number of them in this Colony : the barbers, stone- 
cutters, and foreign ladies' tailors being mostly Hakkas. 

The word Hakka means ' strangers,' and refers to their 
origin. In the Straits they are known as Khck, or Kehs, so 
called from the Swatow and Amoy pronunciation of the 
word Hak. 

We give a short summary of the history of tliis curious 
people as far as is at present known about them : — 

The North of China is •' the original home of the Hakkas' 
where, about the third century before Christ, they were 
located in Shan-tung principally, as well as to a slight 
extent in Shan-si, and Ngan-hAvui. 

They were subjected to a bloody persecution in the time 
of the Ts'in dynasty ( B.C. 2^9-209), and this started them 
off on their travels. Settling in Ho-nan, N2;an-hwui. 
and Kiang-si, some changed their names, but a more 
prosperous time followed. Another persecution under another 
Ts'in dynasty (A.D. 419) finally scattered them entirely from 
that part of China. This resulted in a general stampede 
'' which carried some of them even into the mountainous 
regions in the s outh-east of Kiang-si and to the very borders 
of the Fuh-kien province.' At the beginning of the T'ang 
dynasty (AD. G18) they were compelled to move again, the 
majority took ' refuge in the mountains of Fuh-kien, whilst a 
few hovered on the high mountain chains which separate the 
Kiang-si and Kwang-tung (Canton) provinces.' 

Under the Sung dynasties (A.D. 960-1278) many became 
soldiers, and thousands of them perished with the last Chinese 
prince of the Southern Sung, in A.D. 1279, Mest of ]\lacao. 
when the Mongols were coming into power. Under these 
last they ' made their first appearance within the borders of 
the Canton province,' but not settling down permanently 
here, or in large numbers, until the beginning of the Ming 
dynast)' (A.D. 13(58) when tlie Fuh-kien Hakka?, after 
centuries of residence there, were compelled by disturbances 
to seek a new home. They came in such overwhelming 

Q 2 



276 THINGS CHINESE. 

numbers ' that they drove everything before them ' in the 
Ka-ying-chau prefecture, which has remained their head- 
quarters ever since. About the same time others came from 
Kiang-si and settled to the north-west of the Fuh-kienese 
Hakkas. From these places they have spread more or less 
over different parts of the province. 

The change of dynasty, which resulted in the present 

house being establish on the throne, caused them to spread 

to the west and south-west of Canton. The nucleus of the 

great T'ai-P*ing rebellion was formed of Hakkas from the 

Canton province, and it was among them that it started. 

' During the present dynasty many have become soldiers and 

have been employed by government, gaining admission to 

the competitive examinations for both literary and military 

degrees. A dreadful internecine strife, in which 150,000, at 

least, perished, took place between the Hakkas and Pim-teis 

in the south-western districts of the Canton province, from 

A.D. 1864' to 1866, and arms and even armed steamers, were 

procured from Hongkong by both parties. Finally, the 

Chinese Government took vigorous measures, the half-hearted 

schemes hitherto pursued having proved ineffectual, and, 

Avith the aid of money to assist immigration of the Hakkas 

to waste lands, succeeded in getting some of them to move 

to the province of Kwang-si, the Island of Hai-nan, and other 

parts of the country. 

Boohs recommended. — A series of articles appeared in the Hongkong 
' Daily Press' for 1866, dealing with the customs of Hakkas, from a native 
pen for the most part ; there is also a more interesting set in ' Notes and 
Queries on China and Japan,' Vol. I,, written bj"- Rev. E. J. Eitel, M.A,, 
Ph. D., and another article on their history hy the same author in ' The 
China Review,' Vol. IL, p. 160, also see an article by Rev. Ch. Piton, in 
same vol., p. 222. As to books for the study of the language of the Hakkas, 
see Article on Books for Learning Chinese. 

HISTORY. — Chinese history deserves more attention 
than it has received from Western scholars ; it has both been 
unduly lauded and unduly depreciated. Like all histories, it 
may be divided into the mythological, ancient, and modern. 

The line of demarcation between the first and second is 
blurred and indistinct. The mythological period covers from- 



HISTORY. 277 

45,000 to 500,000 years, and commences with 'the opening of 
heaven and earth,' as the Chinese say. Different accounts 
have been given of the creation, one of the most popular is 
that of Pwan-ku, who is represented with hammer and chisel 
bringing the rude masses of chaotic matter into shape and 
form. His labours lasted for 18,000 years, and day by day 
he increased in stature six feet, while the heavens rose, and 
the earth expanded and thickened. His task completed, and 
the earth roughly fitted for its future inhabitants, Pwan-ku 
by his death benefited the world as much as by his life, for 
as the story goes : — 

* His head became mountains, his breath wind and clouds, and 
his voice thunder ; his limbs were changed into the four poles, his 
veins into rivers, his sinews into the undulations of the earth's surface, 
and his flesh into fields ; his beard, like Berenice's hair, was turned 
into stars, his skin and hair into herbs and trees, and his teeth, bones, 
and marrow, into metals, rocks, and precious stones ; his dropping 
sweat increased to rain, and lastly ( nasciUir ridiculus imcsj the insects 
which stuck to his body were transformed into people ! ' 

The Chinese believe that there were giants in the earth 
in those days, for Pwan-ku was followed by three sovereigns 
named the Celestial, the Terrestrial, and the Human, who 
Avere of gigantic form. Another 18,000 years was occupied 
by their reigns, during which numerous inventions and im- 
provements were effected for the good of mankind, such as 
good government, the union of the sexes, and, what must have 
been of parahiount importance, men learned to eat and drink, 
and sleep was invented. Two more Sovereigns succeeded 
these, Yu-chau and Sui-jin ; the latter brought fire down from 
heaven, and mankind had the blessing of cooked dishes. 

The ancient or legendary history commences with 
Fuh-hi : he and his four successors are called ' The Five 
Sovereigns.' No\v begins the ' highest antiquity ' of the 
Chinese, B.C. 2852 or B.C. 3322, according to different 
authorities, which is about the same time as the commence- 
ment of the Assyrian Monarchy. Amongst other blessings 
conferred at this period was marriage; the bounds of the 
kingdom were extended to the eastern sea ; and Fuh-hi's 
capital was in the present province of Ho-nan. His successor 



278 THINGS CHINESE. 

was Shin-nung, who shortly changed his capital to Shan-tung-. 
Fuh-hi and his seven successors reigned 747 years, or an 
average of 93 years each. This period has, of course, much 
of the mythical about it, but standing out very prominently 
is the reign of Hwang-ti. He triumphed over his several 
rivals, and divided his territory according to the decimal 
system, as follows : — 

10 to\vns = l district. 10 departments =1 province. 

10 districts = 1 department. 10 provinces = the empire. 

Weights and measures were also fixed on the same 
principle. He is credited with having regulated the calendar, 
and having introduced in the sixty-first year of his reign 
the cycle of sixty years, which in its sexagenary periods 
bridges over the thousands of years from that time (B.C. 2637) 
to the present, namely, seventy-five revolutions of sixty 
years. He made roads and built vessels for inland waters, as 
well as for the open sea. He is looked up to as the founder 
of the great empire, and his dominions are said to have 
extended from Sha-chow, in the west, to the sea ; and from 
the modern Pe-chih-li, in the north, to the Yang-tsz-kiang 
in the South. He was succeeded by his son, and the latter 
by his nephew, who is said to have widened the borders of 
his empire to Tonquin in the South, and to Manchuria in the 
North. 

Two hundred and forty years (three reigns) intervened 
between the periods of Hwangti and a galaxy of China's 
greatest worthies, the Emperors Yao, Shun, and Yu. Con- 
fucius and Mencius have held up to all future time the 
perfect character and virtues of Yao and Shun — they are two 
of China's greatest sages. During this period occurred the 
great deluge in China, which the best authorities concur in 
considering to be an overflow of the Yellow River, possibly 
when changing its channel. Years were spent in coping with 
this great disaster, which must have wrought terrible havoc 
and destruction, and unremitting toil and energy were ex- 
pended in remedying it. It is about this time that the first 
Chinese settlers arrived in their future home, namely B.C. 2200, 



HISTORY. 279 

driving out the earlier settlers into more remote parts of the 
country where some of them are now still to be found as 
aboriginal tribes (See Article on Aboriginal Tribes) . 

The history preceding the time of Yao, it has been 
suggested, must then be consideied either as that of the 
previous inhabitants of the land incorporated into Chinese 
history, or their own previous history brought over with them 
to their new home ; for though much, if not a great portion, 
of what is narrated of the present period under review is 
mythical, unsubstantial, and unreal, we cannot help consider- 
ing it the height of folly to agree with the sceptical school 
of Chinese sinologues, who reject everything because the 
greatest proportion is incredible. It seems wiser, in our eyes, 
to believe that amidst all the chaff, some grains of wheat are 
to be found. The great Yu was the founder of the Hia 
dynasty (B.C. 2205-1818) ; and with this period the throne 
becomes hereditary — having hitherto been more or less 
elective— seventeen rulers belonged to the same family ; one 
was dethroned by the people, and another by a minister, but 
the heir apparent was preserved alive in a massacre that 
ensued in an attempt to recover the throne, and, after many 
vicissitudes, ascended the throne of his ancestors. (The whole 
population of China at this time was only between one or 
two millions', constituting, it is supposed of stations of colonists 
dotted about amidst the aborigines. The greater part of 
• China was then, except in Honan and along the Yellow 
River, overrun by luxuriant vegetation.' Wild beasts 
abounded, and their trails formed the roads. In certain 
senses life must have been a harder struggle for existence 
than at the present day). Yu's son was worthy of such a 
sire, but the succeeding nine monarchs were of so little 
account that but little record is left of their doings. In 
B.C. 1818, Kieh-kwei and his consort spent all they extorted 
in unbridled voluptuousness. A pond of wine was formed, 
able to float a boat, at which 3,000 men could drink at once ; 
when drunk, they were allowed to attack the pyramids of 
delicate viands surrounding the lake ; and the vilest orgies 



280 THINGS CHINESE. 

were held in the palace. Public opinion was outraged, and 
one of the ministers, a descendant of Hwang-ti, assumed the 
throne, and founded the new dynasty of Shang in B.C. 1766, 
which lasted for 644 years. The Shu King contains fragments 
of the annals of this time which show the high standard 
aimed at by China's rulers. Twenty-eight sovereigns, good 
and bad, ascended the throne, the fortunes of the State 
fluctuating in response to the hand that held the helm, the 
wickedness culminating in the person of Chau-sin, the last of 
the line. Two instances of his wanton cruelty may be noted: — 
Several women who were gathering shell-fish, barelegged, 
on a river's bank, one winter's morning, had their legs cut off, 
that the inhuman monarch might see the marrow of those 
who were so insusceptible to cold : and he, likewise, had the 
heart of a bold minister, who reproved him, brought, that he 
might see the difference between it and that of a cowardly 
minister. Such conduct in China naturally produced its 
inevitable result, the passing away of the dynasty ; and the 
founders of the Chau dynasty (the Chau dynasty lasted from 
B.C. 1122 to B.C. 660) were the agents in establishing a 
better order of things. Some sinologues would blot out all 
that precedes this dynasty and make this the starting point 
-of Chinese history. We have already expressed our opinion 
on the subject. 

/ The founders of the Chau dynasty, Wan Wang, Wu 
/Wang, and Chau Kung, 'are among the most distinguished 
men of antiquity for their erudition, integrity, patriotism, 
and inventions.' Wan Wang united the principal men 
against the reign of misrule, but, dying, left to his son the 
completion of the work he had begun, while the uncle of 
Wu Wang, Duke Chau, advised the actual sovereign. These 
men were praised and held in the highest esteem by 
Confucius. Notwithstanding all his ability and reverence 
for the Supreme Ruler, Wu Wang committed a grand 
political blunder by dividing the empire into petty states j) 
and, harassed by attacks of the Tartars, a later sovereign/") 
Ping Wang, committed an equally grave error of judgment 



HISTORY. 281 

in abandoning his eastern capital to one of his nobles, to 

form a buttress against the incursions of these nomads, 

while he retired to the western capital, thus dividing it into ' 

the Eastern and Western Chau. These fatal mistakes paved 

the way for the weakening of the central authority, and the 

result, of the first especially, was a multiplicity of feudal 

states, little kingdoms in themselves, engaged in internecine 

strife, the weaker succumbing to the stronger, and all 

belittling the authority of the ruling sovereign. The 

number of these states varied at different times, 125, 41, and 

52 are numbers that are given. Begun so auspiciously, this 

dynasty, like its predecessors, reached a period of decadence, 

though it has the honour of having lasted for 873 years, 

with 35 rulers, the longest time known in history. 

'A series of wars, intrigues, diplomacy, conspiracies, and plots, 
much resembling what has been occurring in the empires of Europe 
during the last 200 years, ensued.' ' The Chinese Empire consisted 
of Shan Si, Ho Nan, and Shan Tung, and it gradually threw out 
tentacles to embrace the rest of modern China, just as Rome threw 
out its tentacles, from Italy, Greece, and Spain, to embrace parts of 
Asia, Africa, Teutonia, and Sclavonia.' 

Eunuchs probably followed the introduction of the 
imperial harem at the beginning of this dynasty, the tributary 
princes copying the bad example of the emperors. .. 

This period is, however, glorious for having given birth \ 
to two of the most remarkable men the world has ever seen, 
Lao-tsz and Confucius. Dissimilar as two men could 
possibly be — the one, to his contemporaries, a wild visionary, 
the other a man who occupied himself with ceremonies and 
moral precepts — they were both destined to exercise an 
important influence on the country. Nor must we forget 
that Mencius lived during this time : — 

'There can be little doubt that the competition in arms, in 
diplomacy, in military discipline, in material civilisation, and in 
education, caused the Chinese of that period to reach a very high 
level of ability, of skill, and of material progress. It was so, under 
similar circumstances, in Greece, in Arabia, in Italy, and it is so in 
modern Europe ; and we can no more wonder at the fond pride with 
which the Chinese regard that famous time than we can at the 
European for his admiration of ancient Greece and Rome. Against 
Plato and Aristotle place Confucius and Mencius ; whilst China had 
then statesmen and orators not greatly inferior to those of antiquity.' 



282 THINGS CHINESE. 

Millions were slain during the constant wars which 
lasted during the whole of the 'Chau dynasty ; but out of all 
this continued strife between the feudal princes themselves and 
between them and their own subjects grew the material on 
Avhich a greater China should be established, for before the 
Chau, China was without doubt but of limited extent. The 
end of that dynasty saw the soutliern border-line of the 
Chinese empire extended to the south of the Yang-tsz. 

Some foreign writers are again inclined to reject as 
incredible the greater part of this period, but when 
archaeological researches are carried on in a systematic 
manner in China, confirmatory evidence of the Chinese 
records may be found similar to the ten stone drums of the 
period B.C. 827. 

One of the most powerful of the feudatory states, that 
of Tsin, subdued the sovereign; and the son of the conqueroi" 
assuming the imperial power, destroyed the last vestiges 
of the famous Chau dynasty, but died in three years, thus- 
forming a dynasty with only one Emperor. His son 
ambitious and powerful, took tlie name of the first Emperor, 
Ch] Bwang-ti (B.C. 220-204), and was the first 'ofthe Ts'in 
dynasty. A man of consummate skill and ability, he con- 
solidated the empire, dividing it into thirty-six provinces.. 
His name is known throughout the habitable world by the 
gigantic work with which it is associated, viz., the Great 
Wall of CJiina ; but this stupendous labour was not accom- 
plished entirely during his reign, as the first beginning of it 
seen to have been commenced in 240 B.C., and even as late 
as the Ming dynasty, in the year A.D. 1547, between 250 
and 300 miles of wall were added to that then in existence. 

Were this the only work that had received the impress 
of his genius, his name would doubtless have lived to all 
time as that of one of the great benefactors of the empire, 
but the restless activity of this Napoleon of China also expended 
its energy in the construction of palaces, public edifices, canals,, 
and roads. The latter, like, the Roman roads in England^, 



HISTORY. 283 

remain during 2,000 years to this day. Again, had he 
contented himself with these engineering triumphs and 
architectural undertakings, supplemented by his vigorous 
sway, his name and exploits would have been had in ever- 
lasting remembrance; but one act of his has blasted his 
reputation to all eternity in the eyes of the Chinese ; and 
they have nothing but ill to say of him. Desirous of blotting 
out all records of a former China, and wishing to pose before 
posterity as the First Emperor, he ordered the destruction 
of all classical works by fire, as well as of five hundred 
scholars. 

The texts were recovered by transcribing them from the 
retentive memories of the literati, and a few copies were dis- 
covered which had been secreted, To a literary nation like 
the Chinese, such a crime was never to be forgotten, nor was 
it to be forgiven. 

On a complete survey of all the facts of the case, the 
Emperor, though the act was cruel, was not so much to 
blame as the Chinese make out, for the integrity of the 
empire was jeopardised by the literati. His son reigned but 
seven years, and was unable to cope with the feudal chief- 
tains. With this period closes the ancient history of China. 

A soldier of fortune, a commander of the forces of one 
of the chiefs, captured the capital, and started the Han 
dynasty (B. C. 206 to A. D. 25) and the modern history of 
China. 

In the North of China, Men of Han ( Han-jin), and Sons 
of Han ( Han-tzu ), are still the names by which a Chinese is 
knoAvn, thus perpetuating this glorious epoch, whether 
looked at from a literary, historical, military, commercial, or 
artistic point of view. Many public works were undertaken, 
prominent among which were bridges. The capital, being 
difficult of approach, had roads cut through mountains, 
valleys filled up, and suspension bridges built to it. It was, 
the 'formative period of Chinese polity and institutions, 
official and formal.' 



284 THINGS CHINESE. 

/ The present competitive examinations for which China 
has been so famous were started (See Article on Examina- 
tions), A penal Code was drawn up, which has formed the 
model for subsequent Codes in China ( See Article on Law ). 
This dynasty is famous for the introduction of Buddhism ; it 
was •' one of the most popular which ever ruled the Chinese ; 
years of peace, during which the nation prospered, alternated 
with incursions by the restless Tartars. The modern Fuh- 
kien, Yun-nan, and Canton, &c., and the greater part of 
Sz-chuen became Chinese provinces, other territory was 
incorporated with that of the empire, and tribute-bearers 
came from remote countries. Chinese armies marched 
across Asia, and China occupied a foremost position among 
the nations of the world. 

The short reign of a usurper, M'ho tried to found a 
dynasty of his own, under the name of Sin, divides the Han 
dynasty into the Western and Eastern Han (the Eastern Han 
lasted from A. D. 25 to A. D. 220 ), Commercial relations are 
supposed to have been established with the Roman Empire 
at this period. The two Han lasted 467 years with a total 
of 28 monarchs. 

Contemporaneous with the latter part of the Han, and 
extending to a later period, viz., from A.D. 220 to 277, is 
.one of the m.ost interesting periods of Chinese history, and 
it has been immortalised and a halo of romance thrown over 
it by the famous historical novel called 'The History of the 
Three States.' Were any instance needed of the utility of 
works of fiction, it might be found in this entertaining 
book which has spread a knowledge of what took place in 
those troublous times in a way in which no cut and dried 
history, though it might have proved more veracious, could 
possibly have done. 

The Tsin and Eastern Tsin dynasties ruled for 155 years 
under 15 monarchs — a time big with disasters and wars. 
The Tsin or Chin dynasty lasted from A.D. 265 to A.D. 419. 
A General then succeeded to the throne, and started the 



HISTORY. 285- 

dynasty of the Northern Sung, but, as at former times, the 
country was divided among separate states, and it did not 
always happen that the house which the historians have con- 
sidered as the legitimate one was the most powerful. This 
observation also holds good with regard to some of the 
succeeding periods as well. This dynasty ended in a series 
of crimes, and the Tsi followed it. Both of them were un- 
interesting and inglorious, and this line was again extin- 
guished in murders. This brings us to the year A.D. 502. 
Three small dynasties succeeded, thus making five between 
the Han and T*'ang. 

We come, in the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-907) to 
another of those most illustrious periods in Chinese history, 
which lasted for nearly three hundred years. 'Under that 
beneficent imperial sway, the peasant tilled his land and the 
trader sold his goods in peace. The fiercer and more martial 
spirits found an outlet for their energies in extending the 
western boundaries of the empire, and the triumphs of war 
and the tranquil pleasures of peace were sung and hymned by 
some of the greatest poets which China has produced.' It 
augured well for this dynasty that its founder did not cement 
the foundations of his empire with the blood of his predeces- 
sors, as was so frequently the case with those who started a 
new house in China. Of the second Emperor, it has been 
well said that :- — * no ruler of any country has had sounder 
claims to the title of great.' His military exploits, with but 
one exception, were always attended with success, while his 
genius, military knowledge, and courage, were tempered 
with the gentleness which maketh great. He gave peace and 
settled government to the troubled land, while his conquests 
ensured the same to some of the neighbouring peoples. He 
patronised literature ; and it was during his reign that the 
Nestorian tablet was erected. (See Article on Missions — • 
Nestorians). It was during this dynasty that, after a century 
of struggle and hard-bought victory, Corea became a posses- 
sion of China ; and so powerful was China that even Persia 
solicited aid from the Middle Kingdom. 



.286 THINGS CHINESE. 

We find the empire placed at this time in what would be 
considered an anomalous position for China to be in, namely, 
under the rule of a woman ; this however, was not so very 
uncommon, especially in ancient times, but the most notable 
. instance of it was the Empress Wu, who ruled with a 
masculine hand, and whose reign, notwithstanding her 
cruelties, was one of benefit to the people for more than forty 
years. 

The siege of Tai-yuen claims notice from the use of 
cannon for its defence, which threw twelve-pound stone shot 
to the distance of three hundred paces. Civil wars and 
troubles with Tibet and other neighbouring nations — wars 
which lasted for two centuries— dimmed the lustre of the 
earlier reigns, and the vigorous hands which held the sceptre 
were succeeded by weaker ones unable to grasp the kingly 
power with regal grip and pass it on intact to their successors' 
The eunuchs arrogated to themselves the character of king- 
makers, and took far too much on themselves, as has often 
been the case in the course of Chinese history. The closing 
chapters of this period are melancholy — a desolate country, 
ruined towns, and the capital in ashes. It had lasted for 259 
years, and 20 emperors sat on the throne. 

The people of the South of China have immortalised this 
dynasty, and marked the time of their civilisation and 
incorporation into the Chinese rule, by calling themselves 
T'ong-yan, or Men of T'ong. 

In contrast to the dark ages of Europe, China presented 
the brightest spectacle to the nations of the world. JMoharn- 
medanisni was introduced; the Greek Emperor, Theodosius. 
sent an envoy, in A.D. 643, with presents of precious stones : 
-as also did the Persians. 

We next come to a series of petty dynasties — ''The Five 
Dynasties' or 'Ten States' (A.D. 907 to A.D. 960), as the 
Chinese call them; the centre of the empire on the Yellow 
-River formed their arena, w^hile the rest of the country was 
held by diflferent Generals, — 'a period of wasting and incessant 



HISTORY. 287 

•civil war, discord, invasions, and commotions.' The whole 
time occupied by them is less than sixty years; the most 
noteworthy thing was the invention of printing. / 

The SunJ(A:i). 960-1126) is another of the groat 
dynasties of Chinese history. It is divided into two, the Sung 
and the Southern Sung. There Avas a greater centralisation 
of power in the Supreme Government, the almost autocratic 
power of the governors of the provinces being curtailed, 
and more peaceful times succeeded, though fierce wars were 
still waged witli the Tartars. The empire was reunited, and 
literature and tho arts of peace wore cultivated. Chinese 
history contains the record of many great names as shedding 
lustre on this period ; the Sung dynasty however, lacked 
the military prowess to hold its own against the warlike 
ancestors of the modern ]\Ianchu-Tartars, the Kins ; these 
first acted as treacherous allies ; then showed their true 
colours; and eventually founded a kingdom, (A.l). 1115- 
1234) which M'as more powerful than that of the Sung; and 
the two held concurrent sway in China. 

The rise of the Mongol power prevented what might 
perhaps have happened five centuries sooner, namely, tlio 
establishment of a Manchu dynasty over the South as Avell 
as the North of China. Constant wars took place between 
the Chinese and the Kins, the latter compelling the conquered 
people to shave their heads, as at the present day, until their 
w-aning power sank before the rising glory of the Mongols, 
who overthrew them, though they offered a stubborn 
resistance. The Sung ruler allied himself with the Mongols 
out of hatred to the Kins, but no sooner were the latter 
conquered, than it became evident that the Chinese and 
3Iongols could not rule together in China. After a war 
carried on for many years (TO), during which parts of China 
were subdued, the Mongols, under different leaders, but 
finally under Kublai Khan, gradually conquered China. 
Among many memorable battles the siege of Sian-yaug 
Avhich was defended for four years, is Avorthy of note. After 
the conquest of Hankow and its neighbouring cities, the 



288 THINGS CHINESE. 

conquerors proceeded in their victorious course, subdued the 
country, and gained possession of the Yang-tsz-kiang, while 
the Court retreated to the south of China. Mementoes of 
the last Emperor's flight are to be found in British territory 
on the mainland opposite Hongkong, while the last scenes of 
his life were enacted in one of the estuaries of the Canton 
River to tlie west of Macao, where, after a disastrous naval 
encounter, one of his courtiers sprang into the sea with him 
in his arms. Thus ended, after a possession of the legitimate 
throne for a space of 309 years, the Sung dynasty in its two 
divisions of Northern and Southern. This House was not 
equal to that of T'ang. One very interesting feature was the 
trial of socialistic principles after long discussion and 
opposition. They, however, were not of such a nature as to 
be adapted for a successful issue, and proved a failure. 

The Mongol sway (A.D. 1260-1341) was a foreign 
one to the Chinese, and the latter being the superiors of the 
former in civilisation, though not in military prowess, the 
Mongols very naturally allowed the Chinese laws to remain 
in force, and retained all the advantages of the superior 
state of the Chinese. To those who are anxious to learn 
fuller particulars of the 'vigorous and magnificent' sovereign, 
Kublai Khan, the gossipy pages of the mediaeval Venetian 
traveller will afford many details of interest, both of the 
vast domains and the splendour of the Court of the great 
Khan at Peking ; this city was first made the capital, and 
it and the Court, were at that time the most splendid in the 
world. Not content with all his victories on the mainland^ 
this born conqueror resolved to win Japan, but his efforts 
only met with disaster and defeat; his armies, though 
encountering a similar fate in Annam, were successful in 
Burmah. He evinced a toleration of all creeds. The rule 
of the invader (the Mongol dynasty was named the Tuen) 
was not popular with the Chinese, but the grandson, Timur^ 
who succeeded him, endeavoured, with some success, to make 
it more so. A number of princes of the same house 
succeeded to the throne, whose reigns were of short duration ;. 



HISTORY. 289 

Mongols were put into office in disregard of the Chinese 
rule of that event following upon literary distinction. This 
innovation caused disgust to the natives ; abortive insurrec- 
tions followed one another, gaining strength and force with 
each renewed effort, until at length the heaven-sent man, 
arose, and the Mongols were finally expelled, in A.D. 1368, 
after a sway of 89 years over China. The dynasty had become 
effete and powerless through luxury, misrule, and weakness, 
and had to give way to one more vigorous and powerful — a 
native dynasty that changed its capital to Nan-king. 

The founder of the Ming dynasty (this dynasty lasted 
from A.D. 1368 to 1628), having been left an orphan at 
seventeen, and without any means of support, became 
a Buddhist priest. He afterwards joined one of the rebel 
forces as a soldier, and was soon in a forward position in 
the strife between the Chinese and Mongols. In A.D. 1356, 
he made himself master of Nan-king, and continuing 
to extend his authority for some ten years, he finally, in A.D. 
1366, commenced 'the war for the expulsion of the foreign 
rulers.' Very little opposition was experienced, so that in a 
short time Peking was captured, and the lust of the Mongol 
emperors fled, though wars, necessary for the consolidation 
of the power of the empire, lasted for some years longer, the 
Mongols still giving trouble by their continued raids. 
Hung-wu, as the first Ming ruler was called, was a man of 
ability and prudence, Avisdom and moderation ; a man of 
peace, he promoted literature, which the Mongol rulers, with 
the exception of Kublai Khan, had foolishly slighted. 
Among many other deeds conducive to this end, he caused 
libraries to be placed in all the large cities ; not this act 
alone, but many others, not least of which was the distribu- 
tion of salt, showed he had the Avelfare of his people at heart. 

Hung-wu was succeeded by his grandson, who, after a 
short reign, was displaced by one of his uncles, who reached 
the throne after a protracted and frightful civil war. His 
son was Emperor for a few months only. The Ming dynasty 
Avas more firmly established. Envoys bearing presents came 

R 



■290 THINGS CHINESE. 

from Bengal and Malacca. The son of the last Emperor 
succeeded to the throne, and during his reign Tonquin, 
which had been a Chinese province for ten years, was given 
up, owing to the difficulty of its administration. The next 
reign but one gave another forcible illustration of the ill 
effects of allowing a eunuch to hold the reins of power, for, 
-owing to the incapacity of one of this class, the Emperor 
was well-nigh brought to the verge of ruin, he even being 
^aken captive by the Tartars. 

Periods of incessant warfare succeeded — wars with tlie 
Tartars, insurrections, seditions, movements, and distur- 
bances. One of the Emperors was foolish enough to start a 
Council of Eunuchs — a species of Chinese star-chamber, but 
the public outcry against it was so loud that it was suspend- 
ed after five years. Another bad measure by the same 
Emperor was the granting of lands to several members of 
his family, thus tending to build up Feudal States. This 
was one of the ' chief causes that operated towards effecting 
the overthrow and destruction of the Mings.' The Court was 
extravagant, and orders were given to work the gold mines 
in Central China, but the result was next to nothing. Un- 
dertakings that were of use must be noted, amongst which 
was the repair of the Great Wall. 

The difficulties that surrounded the Ming dynasty were 
increasing : troubles in Cochin-China, further wai'S Avith the 
Tartars, and raids by the Japanese, all kept them occupied ; 
and the misfortunes culminated in the long reign of 
Wan-lieh, when the troubles began with the Manchus, 
though several Emperors succeeded to the throne before the 
final overthrow of the native dynasty. The Portuguese 
arrived in China in the reign of Kiah-tsing, and Jesuit mis- 
sionaries in tliat of Wan-lieh. 

A small Tartar tribe, presided over by a chief of ability, 
gathered strength and amalgamated its power with other 
branches, until, after a long and desultory Avarfare, the 
opportunity arose in the success of a rebel chieftain who 



HISTORY. 291 

ascended the Chinese throne, and the last of the Miner 
Emperors committed suicide. Ng San-kwai, a renowned 
(jeneral, called in the aid of the Manchus to expel the usur- 
per, and they, in their turn, after a long contest of forty 
years, succeeded in conquering the whole empire, notwith- 
standing that several Ming princes were proclaimed Emperors 
and fought against the conquerors. Numerous uprisings 
also took place, but the Manchus were victorious over all. 
A great part of the reign of the first Emperor (A.D. 1644) 
of the Manchu, or Ts'ing dynasty, was occupied by these 
wars ; and it is interesting as being the time when several 
embassies from the West arrived in China. Shun-chi, for 
that was the name by which the first sovereign of the 
Ts'ing dynasty was known by on the throne, was succeeded 
by the renowned Kang-hi. These two reigns were also 
famous for the exploits of the semi-piratical and naval hero 
Koshinga, who expelled the Dutch from Formosa. The 
Jesuit missionaries held high positions on account of their 
mathematical and astronomical knowledge. A bold rebellion, 
headed by the redoubtable Ng San-kwai, complicated 
amongst other things by a threat of the Mongols to attack 
China, was quelled by the Manchus, and as a result Manchu 
garrisons were placed in the cities, where they are still 
maintained at the present day. Formosa was conquered, 
and a protracted struggle took place Avith the Eleuths under 
Galdan, but the Chinese army met with success. This Avas 
foUoAved by much trouble Avith the Central Asian question : 
and Chinese authority Avas rendered paramount in Tibet. 
Kang-hi reigned for sixty-one years, during which period the 
Manchu rule over China and the neighbouring States Avas 
firmly established. 'The public acts and magnificent ex- 
ploits of his reign * * * show him Avise. courageous, 
magnanimous and sagacious.' ' In the smallest affairs he 
seems to have been truly great.' 

His son Yung-ching folloAved him, but his reign Avas 
short compared Avith that of his father. He Avas a man who 
cared not for military glory and aggrandisement ; his reign 

R 2 



292 THINGS CHINESE. 

is noted for the restrictions placed on the growing power 
and influence of the Jesuit missionaries, and after Kien-lung 
succeeded to the throne they suffered persecution. The first 
few years of this latter monarch's reign were tranquil ; but 
they were succeeded by a long war in Central Asia, where his 
authority was set up amongst the turbulent tribes ; and for 
nearly a century and a half the wisdom of Kien-lung's able 
and far-seeing policy has been visible in peaceful frontiers. 
Wars were also carried on against the Burmese and the 
Miao-tze with success, and also against the bravest of the 
Indian tribes, — the Goorkhas in Nepaul, — who had attacked 
Tibet. An insurrection in Formosa was put down, as well as 
some others. This long reign of sixty years is also noted for 
the close relations that were entered into between China and 
the nations of Europe. We cannot leave our short summary 
of some of the principal events of this period without adding 
our tribute to the universal voice of praise of the eaergy and 
thoroughness of this Emperor, and the assiduity with which 
lie devoted himself to the subjects requiring his attention. The 
Manchu power was brought to the zenith of its glory and had as 
able rulers always sat on the throne as Kang-hi and Kien-lung,.. 
much of the misery of later days might have been prevented. 

The succeeding reign, that of Kia-king was not one of 
peace and quiet : there were secret combinations against 
the Goverment, and insurrections and piracies abounded; a 
formidable force of pirates infested the coast of Kwang-tung 
for some years; the Portugese assisted the Chinese in 
attacking them, but the two piratical leaders quarrelled, and 
finally submitted themselves to the Imperial Government. 

Kia-king's son Tau-kwang was a more energetic and 
just ruler than his father. Many local insurrections and 
disasters took place, among which was the first war with 
England, which, however, resulted in one good thing, the 
opening of China to foreign trade. The frightful T'ai P'ing 
rebellion broke out at the close of this Sovereign's reign, 
and demanded the prowess of a Kang-hi or Kien-lung to 
subdue it, but Hien-fung, who succeeded Tau-kwang, was- 



HISTORY. 293 

not cast in the same mould as his grandfather or great- 
great-grandfather. A second war with England took place, 
and resulted in the country being still further opened to 
Western nations. 

In the next reign, that of T'ung-chi, the great T'ai- 
P'ing rebellion was subdued, Chinese Gordon having a very 
great share in the matter; this rebellion had lasted from 
A.D. 1850 to 1864 and had desolated several provinces. A 
Mohammedan rising was also quelled ; and diplomatic inter- 
course was started with the Treaty Powers. 

His cousin succeeded T'ung-chi, under the style of 
Kwang-su. As far as can be judged by the imperfect light 
of the historic past, China is better governed now, under the 
present dynasty, than she has ever been. A slow progress 
towards Western civilisation has commenced : the construc- 
tion of railways has begun; cotton mills have been established; 
mints have been opened for the coining of copper and silver 
after the Western fashion; a navy of foreign-built vessels was 
formei-l\-, and is now being again, acquired ; bodies of troops, 
trained in the European style; arsenals, started; and various 
other minor improvements effected. But the almost universal 
corruption and inefficiency of the mandarins has resulted in 
a series of disastrous defeats of the army and navy, the 
results of which amongst other things are seen in the loss 
of the magnificent Island of Formosa, the dismantling of- 
Port Arthur, and in the destruction or taking of the 
vessels of the Northern Fleet by the Japanese. All who are 
interested in the future of this mighty empire are watching 
with keen eyes every sign of progress, now rejoicing in in- 
dications of foresight and prudence on the part of her rulers, 
and now lamenting the apparent ineptitude and inability to 
grasp the position of affairs on the part of those in power. 
The future alone will show how the balance will turn. 

What the results of the present condition of affairs will be 
is hard to say. Russia is extending her hold over Manchuria 
and holds Port Arthur; Germany has Kiao-Chau; Great 
Britain, Wei-hai-wei. 'Spheres of influence,' and 'open doors * 



294 THINGS CHINESE. 

and different plans to build up or pull to pieces the present 
house are talked about by difierent persons, but no one knows 
A^hat will really happen next. 

We have thus traced in the shortest manner possible the 

history of the Chinese nation fi'om a mythological period to 

a mythical and semi-mythical one, until, under the House of 

Chau, the facts of Chinese historj'' are more reliable. We 

have seen the ebb and flow of dynastic changes : how, with 

the new vigour of a fresh dynasty, the power of China was 

extended for a few centuries, to be succeeded, when effete 

rulers followed, by an ebb of dominion and influence, until, 

with each successive change, a higher tide of power reclaimed 

what weak hands had lost, iaud the boundaries of the empire 

were again expanded with each rise of fortune to a greater 

extent; how the Feudal States of China, with a nominal 

paramount lord, were succeeded by 'the foundations of a 

coherent empire' under the first Emperor of Tsin ; next, we 

have seen ' the stately house of Han,' ' making vast strides 

towards a more settled state of prosperity and civilisation; ' 

the troublous times of the Three States and other dynasties 

from which China rose in the brilliant epoch of the T'ang ; 

another ebb and transition period of the Five Dynasties, when 

the recurring tide of prosperity came in with the Sung, to be 

followed by an efflux, and another stormy wave of conquest 

under the Mongols, which quickly retired to return, with 

renewed force, with the great Ming dynasty on its crest again, 

to again retire, and with fresh energy, to once more return 

with the conquering Manchu 

Books recommended. — Boulger's 'History of China,' 3 vols. 'Historic 
China and other Sketches,' by H. A. Giles. Williams's 'Middle Kingdom.' 
Ross's ' Corea,' and the paine author's ' History of the Manchus.' ' Historical 
Atlas of the Chinese Empire from the earliest times down to the close 
of the Ming Dynasty,' by E. L. Oxenham, gives maps of China at different 
periods and contains a most interesting summary of Chinese history. 
To all of these we are more or less indebted in the preparation of this pnper. 
Numerous sketches of different epochs of Chinese History will be found 
treated of in different articles in the ' China Review,' and ' Missionary 
Recorder,' amongst these particularly note ' China in the Light of Historj-,' 
by Rev. E. Faber, Dr. Theol : A series of articles translated from the German 
and published in the ' Chinese Recorder,' Vol. XXVII. ' Macgowan's History 
of China ' is the latest history of China. The historic portion of WilliamsV 
* Middle Kingdom ' has also been published separately as a volume. 



] 



HOK-LO. 295 

HOK-LO. — This word is applied to the inhabitants of 
certain parts of the North-eastern portion of the Canton 
province, who differ in speech, manners, and customs, from 
the rest of the population. Their language (See Article on 
Dialects, under the word Swatow) is near akin to the Fuh- 
kienese, but has several dialects, The Swatow is spoken 
at that port, and the Hoi-fung and the Luk-fung in the districts 
of country so named, and some other dialects would probably 
be discovered were the subject fully examined into. 

The Hok-lo occupy the whole of some districts, and ai-e 
scattered through other parts, having migrated from the 
Fuhkien province a few centuries since. It is estimated that 
within the Canton province there are about three million 
Hok-lo speakers. There are some traces of a very ancient 
origin in this speech ; and it is not so soft and musical as 
the Cantonese, having many nasal twangs. 

In dress they differ slightly from the Cantonese, the 
jackets of the men are rather longer at times, and they often, 
in common with the Fuhkienese, wear turbans. They are a 
rougher, wilder set of men than the Cantonese. There are other 
points of difference between them, into which we cannot enter. 

The American Baptist and English Presbyterian missions 
have many stations in the Hok-lo country. 

There are a number of Hok-lo in Hongkong, many of the 
chair coolies belonging to that part of the country. They 
make good bearers, being physically stronger than the natives 
further South. Many Hok-lo have gone abroad, and are to be 
found in different parts of the world. By the census of 1891 
there were 43,791 Teo Chews in the Straits Settlements : 
Teo Chews is the term applied generally to them in Singapore, 
Penang, and the Malay States, while Hok-lo is the name by 
which they are generally known by the Cantonese speakers in 
China; the former name being derived from the Departmental 
city of Ch'ao Chao fii (in the local dialect Tin Chiii fii, or Teo 
Chew fu) to which the different districts, from which many of 
the Hok-los come, belong ; while Hok-lo means Men from the- 
Fuk (or, or as it is locally, Hokl province, ?.e.,Fukkien province. 



'396 THINGS CHINESE. 

INFANTICIDE.— The longer one lives in China the 
more one feels the necessity for caution in saying what does 
and what does not exist here. In our younger days we have 
been guilty of dogmatically asserting that such and such 
things were not done in China, to be sometimes confuted in 
later years by the evidence of our own eyes and ears ; nor 
are we singular in this respect, as doubtless many other old 
residents in China could testify. Some authors have been 
egregious sinners in thus writing about a small portion of 
China in which they have resided : they have judged of the 
whole of this vast empire, with its diverse inhabitants, 
manners, and customs from a small part of it, reversing the 
mathematical axiom that the whole contains its parts, into 
' one small part contains the whole.' 

About no subject is this perhaps more strikingly true 
than that of infanticide, for what holds perfectly good of 
one small district, is entirely false when applied to other 
large tracts. Also what happens at one time, an exceptional 
period possibly, may not happen again, even in the same 
district, for years. 

To form an approximately correct estimate of this evil 
and crime in China, a systematically carried out investiga- 
tion, extending over a number of years, all over the land, 
would be necessary. 

To premise, as a general statement, it may be said that 
in certain parts of the empire, and/or at certain times, this 
•crime is only too alarmingly practised. One writer says, 
* thousands of female babies are destroyed every year.' 

That it is prevalent in some regions it is useless to 
deny. There is a quasi sanction given to it under certain 
circumstances by the tale of one who had not sufficient to 
support his aged parent and his own family, and who thereupon 
came to the resolve, with his wife, that the infant should be 
sacrificed in order to have enough for its grandparent. 
Taking the child for the purpose of burying it alive, the 
misguided and wicked parent — but, according to Chinese ideas, 
most dutiful son — was rewarded by heaven, and restrained 



INFANTICIDE. 297 

from this act of filial piety by discovering a pot of gold in 
the hole he had dug for his own offspring. And this is 
held up as an example, it being one of the twenty-four 
moral (?) tales to encourage others to a performance of filial 
duties. What wonder if some follow the example thus held 
up to them. Were it not also a known fact that infanticides 
take place, proof of it might be found in the proclamations 
which are sometimes issued against it by the officials. And 
even another corroboration of its practice may be found in 
the Chinese mothers, Avho have acknowledged putting their 
own cliildren out of the way. Again the author has a small 
tract issued under the imprimatur of the Goddess of Mercy, 
which contains illustrations of the methods of committing 
the crime, and inveighing against it. 

On the other hand, it must not be supposed that all the 
dead bodies of children that float down the rivers are the 
victims of infanticide, nor that those which are found exposed 
at the roadside or on the hills are necessarily thrown there 
by heartless hands, for the Chinese do not go to the trouble 
of burying little children with the same care that they do 
older people, and the dead children are often thrown into 
the river, or cast out in the country. 

One of the great causes of infanticide is poverty ; 
another is the low estimation in which girls are held, and 
all the evils which necessarily ensue from such an inferior 
position in the social status, for it is seldom, indeed rarely, 
that boys are killed ; and that brings us to another reason, 
for if a boy is made away with, it is probably due to some 
physical defect, this reason also causing the death of some girls- 

'In his pamphlet on "The Diseases of China," Dr. Dudgeon 
says (on p. 56) : — "One thing is certain, infanticide does not prevail 
to the extent so generally believed among us; and in the North, 
whence Europe derived her ideas chiefly from the Jesuits of the last 
century, it does not exist at all." These remarks do not apply to 
Shan-si, where the practice is quite common. The teachers deny 
that female infants are thus killed, but the common people readily 
admit that they destroy many of their girl babies. There are 
<;omparatively few old women of the poorer classes who have not 
been guilty of this crime. The writer himself is aware of some 
instances of the kind.' 



298 THINGS CHINESE. 

In the neighbourhood of Hankow there are many cases- 
of it among the poor and rural population. It is also said 
to be prevalent among the Hakkas. It is practised in Canton, 
but is much rarer there than in some places. It seems to- 
prevail in certain parts of the Fuh-kien province. From 
enquiries made in some villages in that part of the country,, 
it was ascertained that an average of 40 per cent of the girls 
were thus murdered^ as we call it, but neither Chinese law 
nor opinion seem to consider it as such. 

At the prefectural city of Ch'ao Chau, near Swatow, the 
author saw, outside the walls of the city, a basket placed 
against a wall, looking from a distance something like a 
cradle. A piece of matting was fastened above it, forming 
a sort of pent roof to shelter it from the rain and sun. In 
this basket, is put any baby whom its parents do not care 
to preserve, and should any charitable person be so disposed, 
he, or she, may lift out the forsaken infant and take it 
home. Failing such rescue, the child ultimately meets the 
fate of so many of the inhabitants of babydom in China. 
The provision made for infanticide in a large and important 
departmental city near Amoy is not so merciful, as it is; 
simply a large hole in the city wall into which the infant is 
cast. In the North of China baby towers are provided, 
perhaps amongst other reasons, for the same purpose, though 
they are principally used for receiving the dead bodies of 
infants. Occasionally a separate hole is provided on different 
sides of the tower to keep the sexes distinct, and thus prevent 
any incentives to immorality amongst the ghosts of the little 
babies. 

INSECTS. — Insect life is rampant in China. To one 
who is accustomed to its abundance in the East, it appears^ 
as if man had to look for it in the West, the opposite beings 
the case in China ; here the insects find out the man ; for 
hide as he may from their advances, they follow him every- 
where, and all his subterfuges to avoid them are unavailing. 
There is no need for the enthusiastic entomologist to look 
under stones for beetles, for beetles abound everywhere ; nor 



INSECTS. 299 

need he sally forth at night to catch moths, the moths come, 
attracted by his lamp, into the room to him ; and when the 
white ants are in full flight, they fly in at the open window 
in such quantities that the table is soon littered with the 
wings which the pupa-like insects drop without the least 
reluctance, at the slightest hint : they come off" in the hands, 
they are shed on the lamp-globes, anywhere and everywhere, 
while the wretched little creatures crawl over your book or 
paper, and, if the lamp is not too attractive, they proceed to 
explore the genus homo with a persistency worthy of abetter 
cause. A grand thing is to set the lamps into large basins 
of water, when hundreds of them lose their lives in the 
moats which thus surround the lights. 

And these same white ants, Avhen in another stage of 
their existence, are a worse nuisance than ever, for they are 
not simply an annoyance then, but a pest. Nothing is secure 
from their depredations. Have you a trunk full of valuable 
documents ? You may, after keeping them for years intact, 
suddenly discover, on opening the trunk, that the papers 
and pamphlets have been transformed into trash, glued 
together into one mass and ridded with the tunnelled roads 
of these indefatigable workers in the dark. Are you fond of 
books and is your collection a valuable and priceless one of 
old editions ? With all your care, you may discover some day 
that these respecters of nothing have eaten up through one of 
the legs of your bookcase, and run riot nere and there 
throughout all the accumulated treasure of years. Is there 
anything left untouched by white ants ? One's house is at- 
tacked in the flooring and the beams of the roof, and sudden- 
ly and unexpectedly collapses ; clothing, carefully packed 
away for future use, is found, when wanted, to be eaten into 
holes. 

The only fault to be found with the white ant is, that 
he has a superabundance of energy that is misapplied, but 
unfortunately misapplied energy is not appreciated by man, 
and thwarts his plans in a most aggravating manner. Were 
the white ant amenable to instruction, he might be yoked in 



300 THINGS CHINESE. 

the service of man instead of being his antagonist, but he 
has views of his own on the subject, and probably prefers to 
work on his own lines, instead of drilling holes in wood for 
the carpenter, or making button-holes for the seamstress. 

From white ants to ants is not a far cry, though they 
are not relations, not even thirty-second cousins. We want 
a Sir John Lubbock to study Chinese ants. We do not 
know how many species there are, but the most casual 
observer cannot help noticing that, at the very least, there 
are several : black ants and red ants, tiny ants, small black 
ants and large black ants. In a country where everyone 
and everything is busy, the ants do not prove an exception 
to their world-wide reputation for diligence. It is most 
interesting to notice how these busy little scavengers 
perform their work ; a dead cockroach will not lie long on 
the floor before it begins to move, and an investigation 
will show that tens of ants are supporting it and carrying 
it off; also how carefully and systematically they bring up 
the earth from the neat little holes, which are occasionally 
^een in one's path; one by one they bring up a small piece, 
and, climbing up on the encircling mound, select a little 
hollow, or what seems to be a suitable spot to them, to 
deposit it — not dumping it down just anywhere. All sorts 
of devices have to be resorted to, to keep these industrious 
little creatures out of the stores : the sugar is black with 
them, and all sorts of edibles are attacked. To keep tliem 
away, the feet of cupboards are set in bowls of water, but 
this water must be often changed, else a scum will coat the 
top, and the ants cross over as human beings would on ice. 

Cockroaches are even worse plagues than ants in many 
places. They swarm everywhere, hiding in the daytime 
in any dark corner, whence they emerge and run riot after 
dark, running and flying all over the room, much to one's 
discomfort. They attack clothing, especially that with 
starch in it, as well as edibles, and books. Woe betide the 
new-bought book, nicely bound in cloth, lying on your 
table ; its fine bindins: will be blotched all over with stains 



IJ\' SECTS. 301 

(if you have not already given it a dose or two of anti- 
cockroach varnish), and a week of such treatment Avill reduce 
the volume to so disreputable a condition, that it will look 
as if a heavy shower of rain had besprinkled it. The female 
cockroach displays a considerable amount of ingenuity in 
her endeavours to hide her eggs. These consist of an oblong 
case, with one edge serrated, of about half or three-quarters 
of an inch in length and about three or four times as long 
as broad. This is naturally of a dark, brownish colour ; but if 
it is laid on a white pith hat, the mother collects some of the 
whiting off the hat and partially covers the egg-case with 
it to conceal it ; and to a lesser degree this is also done 
where the colour of the substance on which the egg is 
deposited differs much from that of the egg-case itself. 

Insect life knows no rest in the East. Speak not of the 
silent voices of the night here ! The voices of the night are 
as many as the day, if not more. This is particularly notice- 
able to the newcomer on his voyage out, when perhaps he 
spends a night on shore at Singapore, and first realises 
that insect life in the East is more intense, more persistent, 
and universally prevalent. 

We have seen a book called ' Songs in the Night,' but 
the insect world in Eastern countries provides incessant 
' songs with words ' both day and night. 

A walk along a country road after nightfall is through 
a perfect chorus of chirps and chips, scissors grinding — but 
sufficient words have not yet been invented in the English 
language to describe accurately all the shrill little voices, 
pitched in different keys ; soprano, alto, and tenor are present, 
and, to make up for the want of a bass, the bull-frogs in the 
neighbouring pond join in a deep, full, well-sustained note, 
brought out at regular intervals. 

All else being quiet, doubtless the insects have a better 
chance of being heard. But the day is not silent either. It 
is sufficient to mention the cicada, an insect about an inch 
and a half to two inches long. The outline of its shape is 



-302 THINGS CHINESE. 

somewhat like that of the shot of a new breechloading cannon, 
for its head is nearly straight across, and its abdomen tapers 
to a point. In colour it is black, touched with brownish 
orange, especially on its under surface, with four transparent 
gauze wings, two long, and two short, and absurdly small 
antennae for an insect of its size ; as to its voice — well, to put 
it mildly, it is not pleasant, though we read in a recent book 
of travels in Africa a charming account of its angelic notes ! 
Solitude must have had a soothing effect on the family of 
cicadas which settled in that dark land, and perhaps the cruel 
treatment they receive from the Chinese boys has produced 
an irritating one on those in the Celestial Land ; for young 
John Chinaman delights, Avith a long bamboo pole, some 
sticky substance having been placed on the end, to poke 
among the upper branches of the trees and capture the 
insect, which then does duty as a rattle, protesting with his 
strident ' sz-sz-sz-sz ' when he is fingered; but it is when he 
is at liberty ' on the tree-top ' that he is in full voice — no 
other insect approaches him in that respect — and, as if 
apparently rejoicing in a knowledge of what his voice is 
capable of, he starts off" with a preliminary flourish, and then 
settles down to business. This ear-deafening din is kept up 
for several minutes, (its distressing nature is intensified if 
half a dozen cicadas are within earshot) then, after a short 
rest, he starts off" again with a wearying iteration through 
the hot hours of the day. It is only the male which ' pos- 
sesses the musical apparatus, consisting of two membranes 
over air-tubes in its throat, with hollow-sounding cavities 
behind each, which increase the volume of its notes.' 

But time, as well as space, would fail us to bring all the 
insect creation found in China before our readers : the useful 
silkworms ; atlas moths, nearly as large as two palms of the 
hands joined together; smaller moths, quaint in contrasts of 
colours unusal in the West in such insects ; tiny mites of 
ones like little pieces of marbled paper flying about ; lovely 
butterflies like bits of rainbow floating in the breeze, and 
fluttering over the flowers; gorgeous beetles of all shapes 



INSECTS. 30;j 

tind sizes ; and the ubiquitous mosquito, (of wliich there 
must be a good many species out of the 150 species which 
are known to exist in the world), the plague of one's 
nights — what aggravated torture and torment it is capable 
of inflicting! — then the hosts of grasshoppers of all sizes and 
modification of shape and habits, some tiny morsels about a 
•quarter of an inch in length and Avhich walk sideways. What 
myriads there are of them all ! Where do all these insects 
-come from, and where do they all go ? Is it any wonder 
with their ingenious habits, their wonderful adaptation to 
their surroundings, their marvellous instinct, their wondrous 
beauty — is it any wonder, we repeat, with all these, that the 
•Oriental has endowed them with immortality, and has given 
them a place in future stages of existence ? 

As to the insects which it is not considered polite to 
mention in respectable society, they also abound, and the 
Chinese appear to have no scruples in speaking of them, or 
in allowing them board and lodging free of expense, though 
they try to keep down over-population by a judicious 
thinning-out. The means employed to this end are not 
always pleasant to a squeamish taste, as the operation is 
carried on, especially by coolies and beggars, in the open 
street, the lowest classes using their teeth as the executioners, 
for the Chinese do not feel any shame at their persons being 
inhabited. 

As to the Westerner in China, personal contact with 
these parasites is perhaps, if anything, less common even 
than in England, where a ride in a. London 'bus may 
introduce one to a stray member of their communitj', noletis 
volens. 

With the advance of medical science of late years it 
becomes more and more apparent that man has more to dread 
from insects, such as the mosquito, than the mere discomfort 
of its bite or its buzz; for it is thought at least to be probable 
that the mosquito spreads malaria. 



304 THINGS CHINESE. 

'Man * '-" may become infected by drinking water con- 
taminated by the mosquito, or, and much more frequently, by inhaling 
the dust of the mud of dried-up mosquito-haunted pools ; or in some 
similar way' 'The later researches of Surgeon Ross of the British 
army have not only proven that malaria can be acquired from a 
mosquito bite, but that the malaria parasite is mostly one of insects 
and only an occasional visitor to man. Particular species of malaria 
parasites even demand particular species of mosquitos— a fact at least 
partly explaining apparent vagaries in the distribution of malaria. 
When all is known, Europeans may be able to live in climates now 
made deadly by this pest.' 

Flies and other insects may likewise help to spread that 
awful disease the plague. 

'One can understand how lice, fleas, bugs, and perhaps 

flies may act as carriers of the virus from person to person, 
inserting it with their bites. Yersin found that the flies in his 
Hongkong plague laboratory died in great numbers, their bodies being 
crowded with the specific bacillus. Sablonowski * *' remarked 
that during the Mesopotamian epidemic (in 1884) a certain species of 
fly appeared and disappeared concurrently with the plague ; he 
considered that this insect was an active agent in spreading the 
disease.' 

Nor is the deadly list complete of the dreaded disease 
which this apparently harmless, though troublesome; insect, 
the mosquito, may disseminate, for elephantiasis is to be 
considered as another. 

'Mosquitoes infect water with the germs of the disease, to 
pi'event it we have to keep the mosquitoes down, to prevent their 
preying on already infected individuals, or, and this is the simple 
plan, to keep them from getting access to our drinking water, or by 
iDoiling or filtration to kill the germs which our drinking water may 
contain.' 

Books recommendecl. — ' Natural History of the Insects of Chinar 
containing upwards of two hundred and twenty Figures and Descriptions,' 
by E. Donovan, F.L.S., &c. See Manson's 'Tropical Diseases.' p. 17, 153. 
Also see pages i&6-460 for an account of the way the mosquito is con- 
jectured to infect man with the Jilaria sangubiis homhih. 

JADE. — The mineral held in the highest estimation in 
China is jade. Under the name Yuk (pronounced Yook) the 
Chinese not only include ' the three varieties of the silicate 
of alumina called jade, nephrite, and jadeite by mineralogists,' 
but they also apply the same term to a number of different 
stones. Sonorousness and colour are the two qualities 
which enhance its value, the best coming from Khoten and 
Yunnan. 



JADE. 305 

*A greenish-white colour is the most highly prized/ 
Williams gives the following description of jade : — 

' Its colour is usually a greenish-white, or grayish-green and dark 
grass-green ; internally it is scarcely glimmering. Its fracture is 
splintery ; splinters white ; mass semi-transparent and cloudy ; it 
scratches glass strongly, and can itself generally be scratched by 
flint or quartz, but while not excessively hard, it is i-emarkable 
for toughness. The stone when freshly broken is less hard than 
after a short exposure. Specific gravity from 2.9 to 3.1.' 

The Chinese look upon jade as 'emblematical of most 
of the virtues '; and from the excessive admiration they have 
for it, it is natural that they should have largely used it in 
their ceremonious language ; for instance, in addressing a 
man, his daughter is styled 'a jade girl,' his hand is 'a 
jade hand,' ' a jade foot ' means his coming, or 'I hope you will 
transfer your jade' means 'I hope you will come,' &c. 

It is the ambition of every girl and woman, amongst 
the Cantonese, to have a pair of jade-stone drops for her 
earrings, and a pair of jade-stoue bangles for her arms. 
Failing the genuine article, imitation ones are worn. Long- 
pins, six or eight inches in length, having from one to 
four inches of jade forming the upper part, are stuck into 
the hair of women ; hair-presses, a curious kind of ornament 
holding up part of the coiffure ; rings for women : large 
thumb-rings, an inch broad, for gentlemen ; vases, sceptres — 
these and many other articles of jewellery, of ornament, and 
of virtu, are all made of this stone. 

The jade-stone shops are amongst the neatest and finest 
looking Chinese shops. The jade in its different shades, 
from rich green to white, as well as other specimens of 
precious stones, already made up into the ornaments so 
highly esteemed, are tastefully arranged on white paper in 
glass covered boxes. Much labour and pains are taken in 
the production of these different articles, time being of little 
consequence to the Chinese lapidary, and expense being 
lavishly incurred by the moneyed man for their purchase, for 
the adornment of his many wives and numerous daughters. 



306 THINGS CHINESE. 

as well as for his own wear, and for seals and hric-d-hrac 
of various kinds to be placed in the halls of his rambling 
mansion. 

The Chinese, it is said, will not purchase jade brought 
from foreign countries. Williams says that a cargo load, 
brought from Australia, was rejected by the Cantonese, owing 
to its origin and colour. Giles says that 'whole shiploads of 
it have been brought from other countries to China, but 
have found no market, the Chinese declaring it was not the 
same article as their own.' It was thought at one time 
that jade was only to be found in three places : which were 
New Zealand, the northern slopes of the Karakorum 
mountains, and Northern Burmah, but it has since been 
found in situ in Silesia, Monte Video, British Columbia, and 
Alaska. It also probably exists or existed somewhere in the 
Alps, as jade has often been found in the remains of Swiss 
lake dwellings, which are supposed to be at least 3,000 years 
old, and it has also been found in Asia Minor, in Mexico, 
the West Indies, and South America — particularly in 
Yenezuela and Brazil. 

'The jade of Turkestan is largely derived from water-rolled 
boulders fished up by divers in the rivers of Khotan, but it is also got 
from mines, in the valley of the Kardkdsh River, * * "' * The jade 
of Khotan appears to be first mentioned by Chinese authors in the 
time of the Han dynasty under Wuti (B.C. 140-86).' 

JEWS. — Considerable excitement was caused, a number 
of years since, by the discovery of a colony of these ancient 
people in the interior of China, in the city especially of Kai- 
fung, a departmental city in the province of Honan. They 
are said to have established themselves in Ciiina in the Hau 
dynasty, though there is great uncertainty as to the time 
of their arrival. 

Several visits have been made to them in Kaifung-fu 
and copies of Hebrew manuscript have been obtained from 
them, but 'no variations of any consequence have been 
found between the text of these rolls and that found in the 
printed Hebrew Bibles of Europe.' These manuscripts have 



JINRICKSHAS. 307 

been deposited in different institutions, such as the City 
Hall Library in Hongkong, the British Museum, and the 
Bodleian. 

The descendants of this Jewish colony at Kaifung-fii have 
sunk into a state of ignorance and poverty; not one of them 
can read Hebrew ; their synagogue is no longer in existence ; 
no services are held; and in a few years the last traces 
of this Jewish community, of from two to four hundred souls, 
will probably be lost in the mass of their heathen and 
Mohammedan surroundings. This appears, since the above 
was written, to have become almost true, if not quite so. 

Books recommended. — In the Appemlix to ' Christian Progress in 
China,' by Arnold Foster, b.a., the general reader will find a succinct 
account of this interesting Jewish colony. Also see Williams's 'Middle 
Kingdom.' 'The Jews in China,' by J. Finn. 'The Orphan Colony 
of Jews in China,' by J. Finn, m.k.a.s. ' Fac-sinules of the Hebrew 
Manuscripts obtained at the Jewish Synagogue in K'ae-Fung Foo.' 

JINRICKSHAS.— Though, not used in the purely 
native parts of China, yet these convenient vehicles are 
largely employed in several of the Treaty Ports, as well as iu 
Hongkong, not only by Europeans, but also by Chinese. 

They appear to have been introduced in the Shanghai 
foreign settlements from Japan, and some years later into 
Hongkong where there are 500 or so. The streets of native 
cities are not of such a character as to suit vehicular traffic 
of any kind, and special roads would have to be prepared 
if it were intended for them to run outside the foreign 
settlements. This has been done in Nanking Avhere a good 
carriage road has been constructed by the viceroy, Chang 
Chih-tung, a great many houses having to be pulled down 
for it. A score of carriages and a thousand jinrickshaws 
are running on it. 

The Chinese are not such good ricksha coolies as 
the Japanese, who think nothing of drawing tandem a 
heavy man fifty miles in one day up and down hill ; but still 
the Chinese, though not such swift runners or possessing 
such powers of endurance, make very fair ones. 

s 2 



308 THINGS CHINESE. 

To those who have not seen it, the ricksha may be 
described as a small two-wheeled vehicle capable of seating 
one, or sometimes two, persons, with a pair of shafts, in 
Avhich a coolie runs and drags the vehicle. Private ones have 
sometimes two or three coolies, the other one or two pushing 
from behind. They are fitted with hoods which can be raised 
or lowered at pleasure, and waterproofs to cover the legs are 
part of the outfit. The rates of hire in Hongkong are — 
quarter-hour, 5 cents; half-hour, 10 cents; and one hour, 15 
cents. In Macao the fares are even less. 

One enthusiast has proposed that they should be in- 
troduced into London. They are already half-way there, as 
their use has not only extended to Singapore, Ceylon and 
India, but even to South Africa. 

KITES. — China is par excellence the land of kites.. 
They are not relegated here to youthful hands alone and 
considered as childish toys ; they are looked upon as fit 
objects for children of an older growth — not scientific 
apparatus such as Benjamin Franklin employed to bring the- 
lightning down from the skies, or such as some present-day 
aeronauts use for experiments in attempting to solve the 
problem of a flying machine; but as simple objects to amuse 
themselves Avith. 

With this higher view taken of kite-flying, it is natural 
that more pains should be employed in the construction of 
kites and more ingenuity in their design than is usually the 
case with us. 

The convenient bamboo in its natural growth of different 
sizes, tubular and light, easily split, should the whole stick 
be too large, and almost as easily bent into circles, strong yet 
flexible — seems specially adapted for tlie frame-work, be the 
kite a crude and conventional imitation of a bird to amuse 
a child (for the pastime of kite-flying is not entirely niono- 
jjolised by those of matuier years in China), or be it a 
Avonderful structure, the joy and admiration of not only its 
owner, but of a gaping crowd and of the Avhole neighbour- 
hood. The frame-work is covered Avith paper and silk, but 



KITES. 301> 

no Chinese would think of using old newspapers for such a 
purpose : any written or printed paper is reverently burned. 
Such importance do the Chinese attach to this that men 
perambulate the streets for the express purposes of rescuing 
any scraps of such paper from being trodden under foot, 
little Avooden boxes are also stuck up on the walls to receive 
anything of that nature thrust into them. 

But to return to kites — so lifelike are some of them 
made, and so well does the trained hand manipulate 
them (or rather their strings) in their tethered flight that the 
simulated hovering of a bird of prey in the air is good 
enough to deceive, at first sight, even a naturalist. It has 
Avell been said that 'the skill shown in flying them is more re- 
markable than the ingenuity displayed in their construction.' 
Butterflies, lizards, gigantic centipedes, a pair of spectacles, 
a huge cash, fish, men and many other objects may be seen 
disporting themselves in mid air, while at the other end of 
the strings will be found young men, or even middle aged 
ones perchance, gravely enjoying themselves, and a group of 
■boys Avatcliing them and doubtless wishing they had grown 
old enough to fly such beauties of kites. 

The festival on which kite-flying is indulged in largely 

is the ninth day of the ninth moon, and this throughout 

China. 

' Doolittle describes them [the kites] as sometimes resembhng- 
a great bird, or a serpent thirty feet long ; at other times the spectator 
sees a group of hawks hovering round a centre, all being suspended 
by one strong cord, and each hawk-kite controlled and moved by a 
separate line. On this day he estimates that as many as thirty 
thousand people assemble on the hills around Foochow to join in this 
amusement if the weather be propitious.' 

A delightful concomitant to the kite in Chinese eyes, 
or rather ears, is a small contrivance which is so placed that 
the wind rushing through it produces a humming sound. 

We wonder if there is anything in China which is not 
connected Avith their religion in some way or other, even the 
thieves and prostitutes have their deities whom they devoutly 
pray to for success and protection. What wonder then that 
the innocent kite is often used as a species of scapegoat, as 



310 THINGS CHINESE. 

with string deliberately cut for that purpose, it floats on its 
downward erratic flight, freighted with an imaginary load 
of disasters thus carried away from those who otherwise 
would bear the weight of ills unknown and dreaded. With 
such a simple expedient to get rid of the dark to-morrow, 
who need be unhappy even in wretched China ? 

LACQUER-WARE.—^. Paleologue, in his admirable 
Avork on 'L'Art Chinois,' while giving full credit to the 
perfection to which the Japanese, originally the scholars of 
the Chinese, have carried this art *une perfection que les 
Chinois n'ont jamais egalee,' says further : — ' Mais, pour 
relever d'un art moins eleve et d'une technique moins 
parfaite, les laques Chinois comptent quelques specimens 
qui sont remarquables par la qualite de la matiere, par la 
douceur des tons, par la puissance de la composition, par la 
largeur et la severite du style,' 

The lacquer is originally a resinous gum obtained from 
the varnish tree (Rhus verniciferaj, cultivated both in China 
and Japan for the purpose. Its foliage and bark resemble 
the ash ; it grows to a height of fifteen or twenty feet ; and 
at the age of seven years furnishes the sap, which is collected 
in July and August from incisions made in the trunk of the 
tree near the foot. These incisions are made at night, the 
sap being collected in the morning. Twenty pounds from one 
thousand trees in the course of a night is a good yield. 
The lacquer sap is of a very irritating nature, especially to some 
constitutions, the writer himself, when a boy, has suffered 
from it by passing through a wood where varnish trees were 
growing; and the Chinese, when preparing it in cakes to 
enclose in tubs to send to the market, take the precaution to 
cover up their faces and hands to prevent contact with 
it, Lacquer 'in any stage, except when perfectly dry, is 
capable of producing', the following symptoms: — 'Blood to 
the head, swelling, violent itching and burning, and occa- 
sionally small festering boils.' 

The best kind of sap is of a tawny or dark-brown colour 
when in its inspissated state, and tarred paper is used to 



LACQUER-WARE. 311 

protect it from the air, but all lacquer turns jet-black on 
exposure to the light. Other ingredients are added, as wood- 
oils obtained from plants such as Auqia sinensis and others. 
These, combined with the Rhus vernicif era, form the different 
qualities of lacquer-ware. Sz-chuen, Hu-nan, and Kwang-si,. 
produced the finest. 

The preparation, of the best qualities especially, takes a 
long time, and one reason asssigned for the deterioration in 
quality supplied to the foreign market in China is the 
ignorance, or ignoring, of this fact by Europeans, who, Avhen 
giving orders, will not wait the necessary time for 
producing a first-class article; and the Chinese manufacturer,, 
from being forced to supply the articles required at short 
notice, has got into the way of producing inferior workman- 
ship, which meet with as ready a sale amongst the uneducated- 
in the mysteries of lacquer as the better specimens did. 

The varnish is prepared for use by the addition 
of oil of the Vernicia montana or Camellia oleifera, 
sulphate of iron, and rice vinegar, these ingredients vary- 
according to the condition and transparency required .^ 
Different tints are given to the lacquer, likewise, by the 
introduction of different substances, such as pig's gall 
and vegetable oil, ivory black, animal charcoal, and tea oil. 

The wood to be varnished is first planed and polished, 
the joints are stuffed with a kind of fine oakum, narrow slips 
of paper are pasted over them, and fine paper, or thin silken 
material is put over the whole surface. A mixture of emeiy 
powder, red sandstone, vermilion, or of gamboge, and of 
cow's gall, is then applied with a hard brush, and when dried 
in the air it is polished with sandstone, pumice-stone, and 
powdered charcoal. 

This double operation is repeated several times. The 
preliminary work, which takes several weeks to accomplish, 
forms the foundation for the lacquer which is applied in a 
room closed on all sides from wind and dust. A very fine, 
flat brush is used to apply a slight and very equal film of it. 



312 THINGS CHINESE. 

The drying room next receives the article, or articles ; here 
the atmosphere must be fresh and damp, for it is under such 
conditions that the lacquer dries most quickly. It next 
receives a polishing with a kind of soft schist. Each layer of 
lacquer is subjected to the same slow and minute operations : 
the least number of layers applied is three, the most eighteen. 

The ornamentation of figures, flowers, and gilding, &c., 
is done in more than one way : — 

' The gilding is perfoi'med by another set of workmen in a large 
workshop. The figures of the design are drawn on thick paper, 
which is then pricked all over to allow the powdered chalk to fall on 
the table and form the outline. Another workman completes the 
picture by cutting the lines with a burin or needle, and filling them 
with vermilion mixed in lacquer, as thick as needed. This afterwards 
is covered, by means of a hair-pencil, with gold in leaf or in powder 
laid on with a dossil ; the gold is often mixed with fine lamp-black.' 

'Ouand, sur le fond uni de laque, I'ouvrier veut peindre un 
decor, personnages, fieurs, arabesques, etc., il esquisse directement 
au blanc de cei'use le sujet qu'il va traiter, ou bien encore il le 
decalque en suivant avec une pointe de bois les Hgnes de son dessin, 
sur lesquelles il a prealablement passe, au verso de la feuille de 
papier, un trait d'orpiment liquide. II commence alors a peindre sur 
ce croquis avec les couleurs dont dispose sa riche palette.' 

Much skill, dexterity, lightness of finger, and long 
practice are necessary to ensure that fineness and requisite 
delicacy, which at the first touch will produce the effect 
desired without repetition, for this last is not allowed, the 
gummy colisistency of the lacquer likewise forbidding it : 
notwithstanding all these difficulties, some of the lacquer 
produced by the Chinese is characterised by distinctness of 
line and a freedom of composition. 

Besides gold and silver spangles, incrustations of ivory, 
mother-of-pearl, jade, coral, malachite, and lapis lazuli, are 
employed in the ornamentation of lacqtier-ware, rough 
mosaics of flowers, animals, »&c., being formed of them, and 
then varnished. 

Foochow lacquer equals the Japanese ; the latter people, 
it is said, having taught their original teachers, the Chinese, 
the production of this superior quality. Some fine specimens 
also come from Ningpo, and command a very high price. 



LA CQ IJER- WARE. 3 1 3 

Cawed lacquer is either not now ( during the present 
century) made, or but little is produced, as it requires great 
labour, rendering its production too expensive. Its mode of 
preparation is as follows : — A dark paste is made of Urtlca 
nivea, of ' papier de broiissonctia.' and egg-shqlls ; these 
are beaten together, pounded, and camellia oil added to 
thicken them. After being applied to the wood and becom- 
ing perfectly dry, it is carved by the artist, who requires a 
firm hand, as no repetition is possible. Several coats of red 
varnish, the composition of which is unknown, are afterwards 
applied. The defect, to a European eye, in this style of 
lacquer is the overburdening of the decoration with entangled 
dragons, phcsnixes, the lotus, &:c. 

There are no names of Chinese artists to mention as in 
the case of the same art in Japan. In China it is not the 
individual that is to be noted but the schools, differentiated 
by style, tradition and tendency. At present, at all events, 
but little has been discovered of the history of the art. Carved 
lacquer was known during the early part of the Christian 
era, though no very ancient specimens are extant, the 
oldest being of the comparatively modern date of the end of 
the 16th century (Ming dynasty). 'Les laquos sculptes de 
cette epoque sont fort rares, et les Chinois les estiment a 
tres haut prix : le vernis en est tres epais, le travail en est 
ferme, d'un style sobre et severe.' 

Great improvement was effected in the reign of the 
Emperor Kang-hi (A.D. 1662) of the present dynasty, both in 
quality of material and decoration ; and in Kien-lung's time 
(A.T>. 1736-1796) some fine carved lacquer was produced, as 
also some exquisite specimens of other lacquer, the best of 
these being made in the imperial manufacturies. We cannot 
resist the temptation to quote once more from !M. Paleologue's 
interesting work •' L'Art Chinois ' as to the last :— 

'M. de Semalle possecie une dizaine de pieces ayant, sans auciin 
doute, cette origine ; ce sont des coupes formulees en calices lobes, 
leg^res k la main et delicatement modelees : I'une est d'un bleu paon 
a reflets verts, chatoyant et intense conime un email ; une autre est 
d'un rose tr^s pale que rehausse un rose de corail, et I'cnscmble est 



314 THINGS CHINESE. 

d'une douceur de tons incomparable ; une autre encore est d'un noir 
uni et profond, de ce beau noir si apprecie des Japonais ; signalons 
enfin, dans la meme collection, un laque aventurine, d incrustations 
d'or et d'argent figurant des lotus, qui est une merveille de gout et de 
finesse. Ces pieces comptent k nos yeux parmi les rares objets de 
laque chinoise p^inte qui meriteraient de figurer dans la collection 
d'un amateur au Japon.' 

Boohs rccommimdc'd. — ' L'Art Chinois.' par M. Paleologue. Williams'3 
'Middle Kingdom,' Vol. 2, p. HO, et seq., to both of which books we are 
indebted for information. 

LANGUAGE. — We remember, some thirty years or so- 
ago, trying to elicit from a lecturer on languages and liter- 
ature his idea of the position held by the Chinese language 
amongst that of others. After considerable humming and 
hawing, he said that it held one of its own, outside of the 
general scheme of languages as elaborated by philologists. 
This position is practically the same that it holds to this 
day amongst many of those who delight to classify language. 
As the Chinese have been outside the comity of nations, 
so their language has been relegated to a position of its 
own with no certain relationship to the other speeches 
of mankind; and as the exclusiveness of the nation, 
is being slowly broken down, so it is to be hoped that, 
before long, in response to the toil of not a few scholars, the 
affinity of Chinese with that of other languages in the world 
will be more clearly established and the wall of partition 
separating it from the others be a thing of the past. Most 
divergent views have been held on the subject and clearly 
proved to the satisfaction of those who held and advanced 
them, but not to the equal satisfaction of their readers. 

There would appear to be some connection between 
Chinese and the so-called Aryan languages ; to prove this 
Edkins, Schlegel, and others, have laboured. The latest idea,, 
that of Professor Terrien de Lacouperie, and his co-labourers 
in the same field, is that of an affinity between the languages 
of China and Babylon. These view^s still wait general 
acceptance, the feeling of many being one of suspense : a 
waiting till convincing proofs ai-e pnKluced before acquiescing 
in any of the theories put forth ; and there are still immense 
fields for the patient worker to explore. 



LANGi^AGK. 315 

The connection between Chinese and the huif^uag-es of 
some of the surrounding nations is deserving of further atten- 
tion in order to fix with a greater amount of certainty the 
relationships which exist between certain of them. 

Some people go so far as lo say that ClTinese has no 
grammar. If grammar only consisted of declension and 
inflection, sucli a statement might be true; but the Chinese 
most cleverly use the relative position of words to express 
what we, to a great extent, and some continental nations to 
a greater, and the dead languages of Europe to the greatest 
extent, show by case, mood, tense, number, and person : 
position is everything in the construction of Chinese sentences, 
and does away with those troubles of school-boys, carried to 
such an excess in the classical languages. 

In addition to position, the use of auxiliary characters is 
employed, and, in the written language especially, a general 
symmetry of construction, and use of words in sentences and 
clauses, which are either in antithesis or juxtaposition to 
each other, assists materially in the correct development of 
ideas. 

Chinese is one of the simplest, while at the same time 
one of the most difficult, languages in the world : most simple 
from the almost entire absence of these inflexional forms ; 
most difficult from the combination of different languages 
under the one heading of Chinese ; such for instance as the 
book language in its two or three diflerent forms, the 
Colloquial or spoken language in its different vernaculars, 
and in its tones, the bugbear and ruin of most Euopean 
readers and speakers of it. 

The Chinese have spent much time and labour in the 
cultivation of their wonderful and interestino^ lano-ua<Te. 
The Shu-king mentions writing as being practised in the 
time of Shun (B.C. 2255-2205). Some doubt, however, has 
been cast on the genuineness of these passages in the Shu. 

There is no doubt that writing was in use a little later, 
in connection with Government matters, and in the Chau. 
dynasty it was in common use among the official class. 



316 THINGS CHINESE. 

Colleges and schools existed, books were made and libraries 
formed. Writing was a laborious task, the language at this 
early period not having attained the rich collection of written 
characters it now possess. The nucleus or prototype of the 
first Chinese dictionary, the Urh-ya, is referable to this 
period. 

The violent attempt of the execrated monach Tsin Chi 
Huang Ti to introduce one language throughout China, by 
destroying all trace of the past, was unsuccessful. It was 
about this time that the transition from the mainly pictorial 
or symbolic representation of the language took place, and 
more attention was paid to sound. 

The period of the Han dynasty (B.C. 205-A.D. 200) 
witnessed the commencement of the study of the language, 
its exciting cause being the elucidation and determination of 
the characters of the books which had escaped the whole- 
sale destruction. Many of the works of the renowned scholai's 
of these ancient times have disappeared during the lapse of 
ages. Amongst two to be noted as still extant are the 
Fang-yen, a comparative vocabulary of dialectic varieties, 
and the Shuo-wcn, an etymological dictionary (A.D. 121), 
which dealt with the writing of the character. The language 
at this period ' acquired a considerable degree of exactness 
and polish,' and many additions were made to the characters 
in use. The Buddhist missionaries about this time also 
assisted in bringing into general future use the spelling now 
in vogue to explain the pronunciation of words. 

During the troublous times even of the Three States 
some sensible men busied themselves with the cultivation 
of their native tongue. An epoch is marked in this 
cultivation in the period known as the Northern and 
Southern Dynasties (A.D. 479 to 557); and the study of 
etymology began to flourish. The four tones were first 
noticed in published works, though doubtless previously 
known to scholars. The Sui dynasty (A.D. 589 to 618) still 
saw much attention paid to tones and the sounds of charac- 
ters. The T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618 to 906) gave an impetus 



LANGUAGE. 317 

to this study so congenial to the Chinese nature. The 
Emperors encouraged learning, and even cultivated it them- 
selves. Renewed enthusiasm was shown in the study of the 
classics: much learning and ability were displayed; the tones 
and sounds of characters received much attention : and 
acquaintance with such subjects was required from the 
competitors for literary employment. Books were also 
written on Sanscrit Grammar and its alphabet by Indian 
Buddhist missionaries, or Chinese monks who had studied 
the language in India, and the knowledge thus acquired was 
of use to native authors in the study of their own language. 
' In several respects the period of the T"ang dynasty forms an 
era of great importance in the history of the cultivation of the 
language. It was the time in which China began to have a 
popular literature. * * * Plays also now began to be 
written and performed, and romances to be composed in a 
style often hut little removed froin that of every day con- 
versation.'' This fixed the style and made fashionable 
the dialect — -the Mandarin — in which they were written. 
Printing was first invented at this time in China, though it 
was not till succeeding dynasties that it exerted its full 
power. 

It is under the Sung dynasty that the language 'is 
supposed to have reached its acme ; to have become complete 
in all its formal and material equipment, having everything 
needful to make it an effective instrument for expressing 
the national mind ;' and Avorks on philology of great and 
permanent value were produced. 

About the time that the jMongols prevailed, a book was 
published which has been rendered into English under the 
title of 'The Six Scripts.' 

'The founder of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1399) 
was a patron of all kinds of learning, aud promoted efforts 
to recover and preserve the valuable treatises which had been 
lost, or become very rare.' One of the most widely used 
works, and the standard dictionary, of the present time, is 



318 THINGS CHINESE. 

the Kang-hi dictionary, prepared by direction of the Emperor 
of that name, A revived interest has been taken during the 
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the philological works 
of antiquity. 

The Chinese, as far as at present has been ascertained, 
have confined their studies nearly entirely to ' sounds, mean- 
ings, composition, and history of the written characters ; ' 
and the study is not generally pursued for its own sake, but 
for the purpose of elucidating the * orthodox canonical 
literature.' 

'The Chinese language is very rich in * * * 
nature sounds and " vocal-gestures ; " ' while the inter- 
jectional element appears to have had its full share in the 
formation of some portion of the language. Many of the 
words and terms in use are imitative of sounds in nature, of 
noises of falling objects, of calls and cries of animals, birds, 
and insects ; and of actions by man himself : these have all 
had their share, and still have, in forming the language. 

On the whole, the Chinese, however, take comparatively 
little interest in such researches. The Buddhist missionaries, 
who introduced Buddhism, did a good work, first, in interest- 
ing the Chinese in Sanscrit with its alphabet and grammatical 
forms, and, secondly, in inducing a study among the Chinese 
of their own language, leading them to examine it and 
appreciate it. 

The Chinese consider the faculty of speech to be man's 
natural endowment : expressive sounds are uttered by the 
promptings of nature; but for the development of speech 
they believe that the most highly endowed men have been 
its nursing fathers. 

It would be highly instructive and interesting were a 
history of the rise, development, and progress of the Chinese 
language down to the present time possible. The materials 
seem at present to be fragmentary. Doubtless with the 
combined study of numerous scholars, much more may be 
known of it than at present. The Chinese language retains. 



LANGUAGE. 319 

to a great extent, the primitive simplicity of early speech ; 
and this is what makes it of advantage to the student to attempt 
to peer into its past depths, and to study its present state. 

The Manchu, Mongolian, and Turkish tongues are 
descended from one source, and this parent language may 
likewise have been the progenitor of the Chinese, in common 
with that of these other lanfijuages as well. 

The speech of the Chinese was preceded in China by 
numerous di.dects and languages of what are termed the 
Aborigines. It seems impossible not to suppose that these 
former speeclies must have had some eifect on the language 
of the new comers, though if a policy of extermination was 
adopted towards the former inhabitants that effect would 
not be much. Traces are now found in some of the so-called 
Chinese dialects of relics of some of these former languages. 
In the Amoy language, a few words are instanced as being 
remnants of a previous race, the same is supposed to be the 
case in the Swatow language, and in Cantonese also a word 
or two is spoken of as being thus taken over into the present 
language. 

The Chinese language would appear, at first sight, to 
be, like the Chinese themselves, separated from the rest of 
the world and self-contained; though tliis is true to a great 
extent of the people as regards their communication with 
Western nations, yet it must not be forgotton that there 
has been considerable intercourse between China and the 
countries whose borders are conterminous with her own; and 
so, instead of the language having no admixture of foreign 
words in it, some such words are to be found. These words 
of foreign origin are generally of a technical character: names 
of countries, official designations, names of fruits, spices, 
woods, reminiscences of foreign intercourse, conquest, and 
commerce. The use of these words has not been confined to 
modern times, but imbedded in the language are found a few 
fossil remains — relics of ancient foreign relations or wars, 
now well-known matters of history. These word are met 
with here and there in books and in conversation ; for example. 



320 THINGS CHINESE. 

to take a modern one, Ho-hm-shui, or Holland water = Soda 
water, because it was first introduced by the Dutch. 

Buddhism has introduced in its train many words into- 
Chinese. They consist of Sanscrit words brought into the 
language, translations into Chinese of such Sanscrit words, 
and new phrases in Chinese due to Buddhism, but not 
translations of Sanscrit words or terms. This religion, 
has also given new meanings. to words and phrases whicK 
were in use before. 

The Han, the T'ang, and the present dynasties, have 
especially increased China's knowledge of the outside word, 
while other periods even bore their share, though a smaller 
one, in exchange of the arts of peace, and at times of the 
horrors of war, with the neighbouring states of Japan and 
India; even distant Persia, as well as many other kingdoms,, 
too numerous to mention, all being known to a greater or 
lesser extent; and, latterly especially, the countries of Europe 
have come within the horizon of Chinese ken. It is not 
surprising therefore to find a small amount of terms derived 
from the languages of some of these countries. ' Certain 
terms even in a comparatively early period of the Chinese 
lanffuasre * * * seem to have at least a common orisrin^ 
with their equivalents in Greek and Latin ; ' Spanish, 
English, Malay, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Manchu, and 
Mongolian, Tibetan, as well as Sanscrit and other Indian 
languages, have each assisted in given new words in the past, 
while with the advance of science and learning this must be 
more especially the case in time to come. But after all that 
can be said, these foreign v>^ords form but a very small 
proportion of the whole. 

The language of China may be divided as follows : — ■ 
1. — The ancient style in which the classics are written : 

sententious, concise, vague, and often unintelligible without 

explanation. 

2. — The literary style : more diffuse, and consequently 
more intelligible ; it might be described as poetry written in 



LANGUAGE. 321 

prose- on account of a ' rhi/thmus," as it has been termed, 
in which it is written, the ancient language having less 
of this — both forms having a number of particles either 
difficult or impossible of translation into English. The 
essays written by candidates at the literary examinations 
are composed in this style. 

3. — The business style which is plain enough to be 
intelligible : it is prose without, or with but little of, the 
poetry element, and few, if any, of the troublesome particles. 
It is in general use for commercial purposes, legal documents, 
official and business correspondence, and governmental, 
statistical, and legal works are written in it. 

4. — The Colloquial or the spoken languages. They are 
divided into numerous dialects (See Article on Dialects) but 
unfortunately they are despised, — there is scarcely even one 
book written in them in the South of China, and yet it is 
impossible to speak in any other language ; and to the great 
majority of the lower classes, no other is intelligible in its 
entirety. In nearly all Western languages when we learn to 
speak them, we learn consequently to read them ; but a 
knowledge of Chinese, as spoken, only places one on the 
threshold of the Chinese of books. This has not inaptly 
been compared to a man who knowns French fluently, but 
who, if he wishes to read Latin, has, after his knowledge of 
French, to apply himself to Latin; the French in this instance 
being the colloquial, and the Latin the Language of the 
book. Again, the ancient language as compared with the 
business style, might be likened to the English of Chaucer 
as compared with that of the modern writer. 

The dift'erence between the book style and the colloquial 
might be likened perhaps to the difference between a 
common English book and some highly scientific or 
technical work so bristling Avith scientific terms, or technical 
expressions, or mathematical formul«?, tliat it would be 
entirely, or nearly entirely, incomprehensible, except to one 
who had been educated for years, and had made such a 
subject a speciality. This way of putting the matter may 



_322 THINGS CHINESE. 

throw some light on what seems such a mysterious matter to 
English-speaking people, and show how. difficult of com- 
prehension the book language is to all except those who have 
received a special and sufficient training. 

Writers on the Chinese have differed as to the richness, 
•or otherwise, of the language. Putting aside all prejudiced 
statements, it may fairly be affirmed that in some respects 
its vocabulary is very full, where some of our languages 
.are poor, and vice versa. The Chinese have no difficulty in 
expressing themselves so as to be understood by their own 
•countrymen and others, though Europeans and Americans 
have not sometimes the patience to -make the good listeners 
which the want of mood, tense, and all inflections occasionally 
requires in order to get at the meaning. 

On the other hand, the statements are often more concisely 

expressed than is the case in the general run of European 

languages. What strikes a foreigner as strange in the 

language, is the ease with which a word does duty as a noun, 

or verb, an adjective, adverb, or proposition. Marshman 

says : 'A Chinese character may in general be considered as 

conveying an idea without reference to any part of speech : 

:ind its being used as a substantive, an adjective, or a verb 

depends on circumstances.' 

Bonlts rfconivi end I'd.' 'Essay f. on the Chinese Languaj^^e,' by T. Watter^. 
' The Structure of Chinese Characters,' by J. Chalmers, M.A., L. L. D.. and 
chapters on language ia standand works, such as Williams's ' Middle 
Kingdom,' &c. 

LARKS AND OTHER SONGSTERS.— The l^ivk Is 
one of the most prized of song-birds among the Chinese. 
Their fondness for birds and flowers, as Williams has well 
noted, being 'one of the pleasant features of Chinese character.' 
No Chinese gentleman, at least in the South of China,, takes 
.a dog out to walk with him ; but on a fine day numbers may 
be seen each with a lark in a cage in the outskirts of a town, 
or sauntering leisurely along the streets, or standing in some 
square, or squatting on their haunches on some green spot, 
while their favourite bird enjoys himself, occasionally even 
with a little ramble on the grass. His master cum dignitate 



LARKS AyD OTHER SONGSTERS. 323 

gravely taking his pleasure in watching his pet, or even 
unbending so far as to occupy himself with the pursuit of 
grasshoppers amongst the turf, though more frequently such 
a hunt is left to the boys or to the wretched grasshopper 
hunters, who armed with a bunch of twigs and tiny baskets 
to hold their victims, from dewy morn till darkest twilight, 
wander up and down the hills, beating every tuft of grass for 
the active, spi-inging, startled insects, which, when caught, 
they sell for a cash or two a piece, to the bird shops or bird- 
fanciers ; their ultimate fate, of course, to be gobbled up by 
pet birds. Chinese houses are so often, in cities especially, 
shut out from the breezes, that it must be a positive pleasure 
to these active songsters to get such airings ; but caged up 
as they are in close and narrow streets they may often be 
heard pouring out their melodious sonnets from the purlieus 
of some confined shop, trying in shrillest notes a musical 
contest with some imprisoned neighbour — such emulation is 
there that they get almost frantic at times. 

The lark's cage is round, made of neatly rounded splints 
of bamboo, and varnished brown, with a removable bottom 
sprinkled with sand and furnished with a perch, in shape 
like a large mushroom, the Chinese evidently knowing that 
the lark does not alight on twigs or branches. 

Williams informs us that 'the species of wagtail and 
lark known amount to about a score altogether.' Amongst 
them may be noted the field lark (Alauda codivox and 
arvensis). Large numbers of Chihli larks are brought down 
every year to the South of China where they are preferred. 
The Mongolian lark commands a high price, ^25. --being a 
common figure for a good one ; it is called the j^cik ling or 
•'hundred spirits.' 

Next in importance if not in equal favour as a songster 
is the thrush. Amongst tlie most common in the neigh- 
bourhood of Canton is the ivd met, a grayish-yellow thrush 
(Garruliuvperspic'itatus), a 'well-trained bird is worth several 
dollars.' The spectacle thrush derives his name from a black 
• circle round each eye; it is very graceful and lively, though 

T 2 



324. THINGS CHINESE. 

not a very sweet singer. Another thrash (Sufhona ivehhianay 
is kept for fighting — death or victory being its song. 

The canary is a great favourite, large numbers being 
reared and even exported as far as England. Its colour is not 
only yellow but some seem to display a tendency to revert 
to the dusky hue of the original bird in the Canary Islands. 
It is comhionly known as the white swallow, its usual light- 
yellow or canary colour being a near enough approach to 
white to satisfy the Chinese philologist. The canary is 
generally kept in a round cage made of bamboo and varnished, 
with a removable bottom and perches of twigs. The cage 
is rather larger than the English wire canary cage, but 
smaller than the Chinese bird cage used for larks". Besides 
this cage very neat canary cages of the same materials 
are made in imitation of houses and boats, as well as large 
squarish cages of unvarnished bamboo, these last being 
especially useful for breeding purposes. 

The prices of canaries vary with the season of the year. 
In Hongkong about 70 cents is an ordinary price charged for 
one to a European. It is said that large numbers of canaries 
are sent to China every year from Germany. i 

Many other birds, some of which might fairly be entitled | 
to the name of songsters, as well as others which can only * 
boast of one or two notes, are kept as pets by the Chinese. I 

Book recommended. — Jour. N. C. Br. E. A. S., May 1859, p. 289. 
LAWS. — It has been observed that : — 

' The laws of a nation form the most interesting portion of its 
history.' 'The laws of the Chinese, if taken in the most comprehen- 
sive sense of the term, framed, as they have been, by the wisdom and 
experience of a long series of ages, and suitably provided as they are 
for the government of an empire, unparalleled in the history of the 
world in extent and population, must, it will readily be imagined, be 
proportionally numerous and complicated. They are also, which is 
still more embarrassing, generally intermingled in such a degree with 
details, concerning the ancient history and actual condition of the 
civil, political, and ceremonial institutions of the empire, that in- 
dividual works on these subjects are sometimes extended to the 
enormous length of a hundred volumes, and the aggregate is, of 
course, enormous in proportion.' 



LAWS. 325 

The Chinese code of penal laws has been described as, 'if not 
the most just and equitable, at least the most comprehensive, uniform, 
and suited to the genius of the people for whom it is designed, perhaps 
of any that ever existed.' 

'The civil and military establishments, the public revenue and 
expenditure, the national rites and ceremonies, the public works, and 
the administration of justice, are, each of them, regulated by a 
particular code of laws and institutions ; but the laws of the empire in 
the strictest and most appropriate sense of the term, and which may 
be denominated Penal Laws by way of contradistinction, are the 
peculiar and exclusive province of the last of these departments.' 

The Chinese, as in nearly everything of importance that 
concerns their commonwealth, carry back the first promul- 
gation of their system of laws to a remote antiquity, namely, 
the time of Yao (B.C. 2356) and his successor Shun, though 
according to their account of that sovereign (Yao), there 
would appear to have been but little need of any repressive 
legislation ; for his rule was the beau ideal of perfect govern- 
ment in China — a state of almost perfect blessedness due 
to the virtues of the ruler or official, for such an one by his 
conduct and precepts changes the thief into an honest man, 
and produces such a state of security, that a bag of money, 
dropped by the wayside, will be left untouched or carefully 
put in a place of safety till the return of the loser. Yet, not- 
withstanding the I'csplendent virtues of these early monarchs, 
the second, Shun, is credited Avith having established the 
following five punishments: — Branding on the forehead; 
cutting off part of the nose and feet ; castration ; and death. 
So innocent and virtuous, however, were the people at that 
period, that many centuries are said to have passed before 
it was necessary to enforce them. 

Each change of dynasty in China may be compared to a 
new geological period, for, notwithstanding the entire dis- 
solution of the government and abrogation of the constitution 
established by the preceding dynasty, yet, as in the deposit 
of new strata, the same general conditions and principles are 
adhered to in the formation, or laying down of the new laws, 
a new code being generally made Avith each successive change 
of family on the throne. That in present use came into force 



326 THINGS CHINESE. 

when the Manchu Tartars assumed the rule over China ; but,, 
to again use the same illustration as above, imbedded in this 
new code, as in the newer geological strata, are to be found- 
remains of antiquity ; and, if a minute investigation be 
substituted for a cursory survey, it will be found, as in the 
material forming the later deposits on the earth's surface, 
that the mass of the laws are of the same stuff and substance- 
as the more ancient ones, codified and altered in conformity 
with the changed conditions of time and life, some of the 
older forms dying out. and more recent enactments, neces" 
sitated by the progress of events, giving fresh life and vigour 
to the whole. 

The first regular code of penal laws is attributed to 
Li-kwai, two thousand years ago. It is described as ' simple 
in its arrangement and construction, having been confined 
to six books only, two of which appear to have been 
introductory, the third relative to prisons, the fourth to 
the adminstration of the police, the fifth to the lesser or 
miscellaneous offences, and the sixth to all the great 
and capital offences against public justice.' This code is 
supposed to have come into operation under tlie Tsin dynasty 
(B.C. 249). Though codified at this period, the principal 
characteristics belong to a remoter antiquity. Alterations 
and enlargements took place with the advent of each 
successive dynasty, both in the plan and divisions of the 
code, viz. : — under the Han, Tsin, T'ang, Sung, Yuen, Ming, 
and some of the lesser dynasties and the latest, under the 
present one, the Ts'ing. 

As in European codes, the building up of new material 
on an old structure, and in conformity with an antiquated 
plan, instead of pulling down and rebuilding on a new 
scheme better adapted for the requirements of an altered 
and progressive state of society, gives rise to ambiguity, 
confusion, complications, intricacies, and inconveniences. 
The artificial and complex construction of the code is another 
cause of obscurity. It is not to be supposed that all thosfr 
principles, some of which are excellent, contained in ouir 



LAWS. 327 

English system of laws, the result of many years of a 
progressive struggle towards the attainment of justice, and 
the outcome of a different system of life and its surroundings^ 
will be found in a body of laws produced under such different 
conditions. Yet, on the whole, the Chinese Penal Code is 
admirably adapted to the requirements of its teeming 
population of law-abiding subjects, taking into consideration 
the great difference of the fundamental principles on which 
the superstructure is founded. 

The parental authority is clearly seen as one of the 
great conditioning causes in operation fVoni renaote times to 
the present. From the small circle of the family of a few 
individuals it spreads in ever Avidening circles to the clan,, 
composed of the aggregate of many families, and reaches 
its final limits in the Government Avhich is based upon the 
same principle, that of parental authority ; and to this 
principle is doubtless due, in union with some others, the con- 
servative and preserving force, which has, amidst, and in spite 
of, many heterogeneous elements, knit the Chinese people 
together as one through so many past ages; and which 
still preserves its unifying power, and may for countless 
generations to come. 

The following extract from a Chinese newspaper, published 
in the Colony of Hongkong, viz. ; The Chung Ngoi San Po, 
will give some idea of what process of law entails in 
China. : — 

'Governor Luk Chuen-him has given instructions to the Magis- 
trates of Nam-hoi and PLin-yii districts that they are not to detain people 
connected with the cases brought before them, whether the prosecutor or 
prosecuted, except in cases of emergency. Theorder is warmly apprecia- 
ted by all the Chinese, for the detention of people in the yamens pending 
the investigation of the cases concerned ati:brded chances to the yamen 
people to make their squeezes, and it is a fact that the Chinese are 
willing to stand any amount of suffering rather than present them- 
selves before the mandarines to be maltreated and squeezed by the 
yamen people, who do not receive any wages from the mandarines 
and simply watch for chances of squeezing. People ordered to be 
detained by the Magistrate in the yamen are kept under the custody 
of the yamen people, who lock them up in exceedingly dirty rooms, 
* * *■ givine them no food and no bedding until their friends and 
relatives come forward to amply bribe the custodians. Sometimes a 
person is detained in the yamen for many years although the case 



.:328 THINGS CHINESE. 

may be only a minor one, if there is no influential Sansz to stand 
bail, which bail is represented by influence and not by money. It is 
not uncommon for the Chinese to successfully bribe the yamen 
runners not to take them before the Magistrate, if a warrant is issued 
for their arrest. 

The prisoner, whether he may turn out to be innocent or 
guilty, is not treated with that tenderness incident to our 
nineteenth century civilisation ; every effort is not made to 
prove his innocence, if possible, and points are not strained 
in his favour, which would be dropped if against him. The 
Chinese law would appear to be better adapted to ensure 
the punishment of a greater number of guilty persons than 
the English law ; but it is probable that occasionally an 
innocent person is caught in its meshes, and, unable to escape, 
is punished ; but English law is not free from this defect, 
even when such a sacred thing as human life is at stake. 
There is no doubt that, notwithstanding misfortune over- 
taking a few innocent ones in China, the well-being of the 
mass, on the whole, is better conserved than in a system 
where sentiment is apt to get the upper hand. This for 
the moment leaving out of sight the universal bribery and 
-corruption prevalent and the infliction of torture. 

The English principles of a man being considered 
innocent till proved guilty, and of no man criminating 
himself, are unknown ; but on the other hand, a prisoner is 
required to confess before he can be punished ; for no criminal 
case is complete without this confession. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, the utility of this safeguard is somewhat, if not entirelv 
nullified by the introduction of torture, if necessary, to induce 
■confession. The application of this must necessarily depend a 
good deal upon the character of the official within whose power 
the criminal chances to be. A cursory examination of the 
penal code might lead one to infer that corporal punishment, 
and, as a consequence, torture was universal ; but, before 
arriving at such a hasty conclusion, several things which 
have a tendency to modify such a decision have to be 
considered : — In the first place, the Chinese should be 
compared with other Asiatic nations, whose punishments will 
■often be found to be of a most ferocious character. Viewed 



LA WS. 329 

under such circumstances, the use of torture to extract the 

truth, does not seem so awful for an Eastern people ; it must 

also be remembered that it is only a few centuries since torture 

was in use in our enlightened lands in the West ; and, finally, 

there are so many exceptions and grounds of mitigation, 

that universality of corporal punishments, and consequently 

of torture, will be found to be much affected thereby. 

The law in China likewise interferes with many acts 

which in Europe are without its pale ; on this point it has 

been remarked that : — 

'In a country in which the laws have not in any considerable 
■degree the active concurrence either of a sense of honour, or of a 
sense of religion, it may perhaps be absolutely requisite that they 
should take so wide a range. Experience may have dictated 
the necessity of their interfering in this direct manner in the 
enforcement of all those national habits and usages, whose pre- 
servation, as far as they are of a moral or prudential tendency, must 
undoubtedly be of essential importance both to the security of the 
government and to the happiness of the people.' 

We quote again from Staunton's 'Penal Code of China' 

(Introduction) — 

'Another object which seems to have been very generally con- 
sulted is that of as much as possible combining, in the construction 
and adaptation of the scale of crimes and punishments throughout the 
Code, the opposit^ advantages of severity in denunciation and lenity 
in execution.' 

The laws are divided into the hit, or fundamental laws, 
and lai, supplementary laws : the former are permanent; the 
latter, which are liable to revision every five years, are the 
' modifications, extensions and restrictions of the fundamental 
laws.' Each article of the fundamental laws has been like- 
wise further explained or paraphrased by the Emperor Yung 
Ching, 'and the whole of the text is further illustrated by 
extracts from the Avords of various commentators. Tliese 
appear to have been expressly Avritten for the use and 
instruction of magistrates, and accordingly form a body of 
legal reference directly sanctioned for that purpose by 
government.' 

The laws are classified as follows: — 'General, Civil, 
Fiscal, Ritual, Military, and Criminal Laws, and those relating 
to Public Works, comprised in 436 sections of the original 



330 THINGS CHINESE. 

laws, and a more numerous quantity of the supplemental laws, 
or Novella?, Avhich bear the same relation to the code as tlie 
judiciary law and subsequent enactments in France, and 
the new laws and authoritative interpretations in Prussia, 
respectively do to the Code Napoleon and Code Frederic' 

Staunton characterises the Penal Code as remarkable 

for the conciseness and simplicity of its style of language, at 

the same time he calls attentioa to the difficulty, without 

' various references and considerable research,' of ascertaining 

the punishment which a criminal ' is actually liable to suffer.' 

He proceeds to say : ■ - 

'That the sections of the Chinese Code may thus, perhaps, not 
unaptly be compared to a collection of consecutive mathematical 
problems with this additional circumstance of perplexity that a just and 
entire comprehension of each section individually requires a general 
knowledge of those that follow, no less than of those which precede it.' 

' By far the most remarkable thing in this code is its great 
reasonableness, clearness, and consistency, the business-like brevity 
and directness of the various provisions, and the plainness and 
moderation in which they are expressed. There is nothing here 
of the monstrous verbiage of most other Asiatic productions — 
none of the superstitious deliration, the miserable incoherence, the 
termendous Jion-sequitiirs and eternal repetitions of those oracular 
performances — nothing even of the turgid adulation, accumulated 
epithets, and fatiguing self-praise of other Eastern despotisms — but 
a calm, concise, and distinct series of enactments, savouring through- 
out of practical judgment and European good sense, and if not always 
conformable to our improved notions of expediency, in general 
approaching to them more neai'ly than the codes of most other 
nations. When we pass, indeed, from the ravings of the Zendavesta 
or the Puranas to the tone of sense and business in this Chinese 
collection, we seem to be passing from darkness to light, from the 
drivellings of dotage to the exercise of an improved understanding.' 
The legal maxim de minimis no7i curat lex is not known in 
China ; much minute attention is paid to trifles.' We scarcely know 
any European code that is at once so copious and so consistent, or 
that is so nearly free from intricacy, bigotry, and fiction. In every- 
thing relating to political freedom or individual independence it is 
indeed woefully defective ; but for the repression of disorder and the 
gentle coercion of a vast population, it appears to be equally mild 
and efficacious. The state of society for which it was formed 
appears incidentally to be a low and wretched one ; but how could 
its framers have devised a wiser means of maintaining it in peace 
and tranquillity.' 

'The people have a high regard for the code,' 'and all they seem 
to desire is its just and impartial execution, independent of caprice 
and uninfluenced by corruption. * '■■- '•'' '■■ It may be observed. 



LAWS. 331 

as something in favour of the Chinese system, that there are 
substantial grounds for believing that neither flagrant nor repeated 
acts of injustice do, in point of fact, often, in any rank or station, 
ultimately escape with impunity.' 

' Besides these laws and their numerous clauses, every high 
provincial officer has the right to issue edicts upon such public 
matters as require regulation, some of them even affecting life and 
death, either reviving some old law or giving it an application to the 
case before him, with such modifications as seem to be necessary. 
He must report these acts to the proper board at Peking. No such 
order, which for the time has the force of law, is formally repealed, 
but gradually falls into oblivion, until circumstances again require 
its reiteration. This mode of publishing statutes gives rise to a sort 
of common and unwritten law in villages, to which a council of elders 
sometimes compels individuals to submit ; long usage is also another 
ground for enforcing them.' 

'The Chinese customary law * undoubtedly rests, as 

did the Roman Law before the publication of the Twelve Tables, 
upon the mores )najoniiii, "that is," as Lord Mackenzie says of the 
latter, upon "customs long observed and sanctioned by the consent 
of the people." We are inclined to think it improbable that the 
Chinese have added to, or more than superficially changed any of 
their fundamental social principles since the compilation of the 
"Ritual of Chau" by Chan Kinig, and that of the "Record of Rites " 
by Confucius, both of which collections * *■'' most probably 
reduced to a definite code the social principles of the Chinese, whilst 
blending them with those of the then ruling dynasty, and to this day 
continue to exercise a profound influence upon the Chinese mind. 
We mean by fundamental principles, those such as the Patriarchal 
Principle * *•• and the Fraternal Principle * *, which, 
especially the former, apparently the progenitor of the others, pervade 
the Law and Customs of the Chinese as completely as the Pdlriii 
Potestas ever did the Jurisprudence of Rome. The Chinese Customary 
Law furnishes a standing "caution" (in the language of Sir Henry 
Maine) "to those who with Bentham and Austin resolve every law 
into a coininand of the law-giver, and obligatiofi imposed thereby oa 
the citizen, and a sanction threatened in the event of disobedience." ' 
*The principle oi Iiiao, which, in its broadest sense, we think we may 
take to include friendship, {si?i), and loyalty, {cJiitng), as well as filial 
{/liao), fraternal, {yu and kung), or (/'z'), and conjugal piety, or duty, {shun), 
is undoubtedly the substratum of the Chinese social and legal fabric' 

'The Chinese Law, both Customary and Statute, furnishes an 
immense amount of collateral evidence in support of Maine's theory, 
that the movement of the progressive societies has hitherto been a 
movement from Status to Contract, or from families as units to 
individuals as units. It is particularly fruitful in illustration, perhaps 
more so even than the Hindoo Customary Laws. * ** The 

numerous illustrations are the more valuable, inasmuch as China has 
not yet emerged from Status; and, as regards the Palria Potestas, the 
Testamentary Power, the position of women and slaves, the fiction of 
adoption, and the almost entire absence of any written law of contract, 



332 THINGS CHINESE. 

remains in the position of the Roman Law,— not of the latter Empire, 
not even of the Antonine era; not even, again, of the early Empire, or 
the Republic at its prime ; but of the Roman Law anterior to the 
publication of the Twelve Tables, — 2,200 years ago. In fact, with the 
Chinese law, as with the Chinese language, we are carried back to a 
position whence we can survey, so to speak, a living past, and converse 
with fossil men.' 

' The law secretaries ■'■•' * ■■■ whether Provincial or Metro- 
politan' are 'the true and almost sole depositories in China both of 
the life of the law and the life of official language. They are the 
jurisconsults of the officials, as the Roman lawyers were those of the 
people. True, most Chinese officials are thoroughly cognizant of the 
main principles, and fairly acquainted with the details of their not 
very voluminous codified law, but the law secretaries are they who 
search out and apply the law in each case, and who draw up the 
records for submission to the Courts of Appeal at Peking, — The Grand 
Court of Revision and the Board of Punishment, "••'■ * "' and to 
the Supreme Tribunal, consisting of the Emperor, either alone, or 
aided by such commissioners as he shall see fit to appoint, — which 
commissioners, again, are assisted by their secretaries. A highly 
paid class, possessing immense indirect power, and usually plying 
their vocation with the least possible outward show, they furnish not 
unfrequently some of the ab.'est statesmen in the Empire. Tso Tsu?ig- 
/'(Z«^, the strategist who *■' * * recovered Kashgaria to the Empire, 
may be cited as an illustrious example ; and a * * * memorial 
presented by him to the Throne, praying for posthumous honours to 
be conferred on four of his secretaries, evidences the value which is 
attached to the services of these men, and the important part they 
take in the concerns of the Empire.' 

The punishments now inflicted for an infringement of 
the law are : — Flogging with the bamboo ; banishment Avithin 
a limited distance for a limited time or permanently ; death — ■ 
of which there are two modes — by strangling and decapitation. 

Manacles of wood, and iron fetters are used, and the 
cangue, a species of stock consisting of a heavy framcAvork 
of wood in which the neck and hands are confined. Two 
instruments of torture are legally allowed : one for compressing 
the anklc-bonos and one for the finger>:, but others are used 
as well, though perhaps not to tlie extent that is sometimes 
supi^osed. 

It is not every crime that is brougltt up before the courts 
but some, sucli as trifling thefts, are summarily punished, 
by the people of the neighbourhood, the thief being 
whipped through the streets of the locality where his larceny 
was committed. 



LA IVS. 33.^ 

In cases coming before tlie officials, the prosecutor must 
file his charge at * the lowest tribunal of justice within the 
district' from which, it" not summarily dealt with, it may 
proceed on to higher Courts. There are no lawyers in our 
sense of the term, though there is a class of men who assist 
the parties, unknown to the Judge, by preparing witnesses 
and drawing up petitions, &c. : — 

For these 'lawyers are a disreputable class in China, notrecognised 
by law, and not allowed to appear in Court. They can simply prompt 
their clients from behind the scenes, and write out their petitions and 
counter petitions for them.' 

'Everything connected with law and law matters is so different 
in China that a European is in constant danger of misunderstanding 
and misjudging the people in connection with such matters. In the 
first place hearsay evidence is perfectly permissible and a man would 
suffer the extreme penalty of the law even if such were the only 
evidence against him. No oath is taken in a Chinese Court. The 
oaths, if a matter is in dispute, take place in the temple before the 
gods, or out in the open air in the presence of heaven, and consist of 
worshipping and either the chopping off of a live cock's head, or the 
burning of imprecations written on yellow paper. In the country 
something earthern ' — a 'vessel is sometimes broken by way of an 
oath. The appeal to heaven is undoubtedly the best.' 

Consequently in our Courts of Justice in Hongkong 
when a suitor fears his case is going against him, or sees 
that his opponent as strongly sticks to his version as he 
does to his, he often suggests a reference to Avhat are more 
binding than the simple declarations, of our Courts, viz., 
an oath on a cock's head, which is chopped off. 

Again a Chinese suitor in a native court does not bring 
his witnesses with him or subpoena them to attend. That 
is the magistrate's or judge's duty, or function : he sends 
his lictors for them if it appears, either in the cotirse of 
giving evidence or earlier, that their presence is necessary, 
consequently in our courts of justice, litigants are constantly 
coming up without their Avitnesses and they often, more 
Sinico, ask the judge to send for them. 

A Chinese judge acts as prosecutor as "well as judge, 
more in the French style (there being no lawyers in our 
sense of the term, there is consequently no prosecuting 
c(nmsel, or Solicitor-General, or Attorney-General), and he 



334- THINGS CHINESE. 

• 
sometimes allows the parties to set to and bandy words 
and recriminate each other while he quietly sits by and 
listens to see if he can pick up any more facts about the 
case. 

Amidst nil the anomalies of the Chinese administration 
of justice there is one good point and that is that the 
magistrate or judge endeavours, if not influenced by bribery, 
&c., to give a reasonable common sense verdict. Though 
there are both laAV and custom to guide him, he is not bound 
by the iron bands of precedents, and la\v and custom, 
M'ithin certain limits, may go to the wall should he be 
sufficiently clear sighted to see a better and more reasonable 
course to pursue. 

The following extracts will illustrate one or two more 

traits of Chinese character with regard to legal matters : — 

'Though there is an elaborate Penal Code and there are 
distinctions between different kinds of murder and homicide yet it is 
all one to the common people and a life for a life is their cry. 
However a money compensation often pacifies wounded feelings in 
a case of accident. Though if the relations insist on revenge, the 
matter must come before the mandarins.' 

When a Chinese witness comes into the box he 'expects the 
magistrate to ask him the name of his native district, his own name, 
his age, the age of his father and mother (if alive), the maiden 
name of his wife, her age, the number and ages of his children, and 
inany more questions of similar relevancy and importance, before a 
•single effort is made towards eliciting any one fact bearing upon the 
subject under investigation. With a stereotyped people like the 
Chinese, it does not do to ignore these trifles of form and custom ; 
on the contrary the witness should rather be allowed to wander at 
will through such useless details until he has collected his scattered 
thoughts, and may be safely coaxed to divulge something which 
partakes more of the nature of evidence.' 

Boolis recommended. — ' Ta Tsin.a: Leu Lee ; Being the Fundamental 
Laws and a Selection from the Supplementary Statutes of the Penal Codt^ 
of China,' translated by Sir G.-T. Stauntan. Bart, F.K.S., Williams's -Middle 
Kingdom,' vol. 1, p. 384 et seq., Giles's 'Historic China and other Sketches.' 
p. 12.'> et seq., and Parker's ' Comparative Chinese Family Law,' to all of 
which we are indebted in the above article. 

LEPROSY. — One of the most loathsome diseases to 
be met with in China is Leprosy ; and one that the civilised 
world has had prominently brought before its notice of 
recent years. ' As to the cause of its prevalence, the poverty 



LEPROSY. 335 

of the great bulk of the people, poor food, overcrowding-, 
generally dirtiness, absence of segregation [in some districts] 
and the liot, moist climate, provide a chain of conditions verv 
suitable for the propagation of leprosy.' China is not a land 
where statistics are available ; the Chinese mind needs a 
considerable tonic of western science and ideas before it will 
be braced up to that definite and precise form of statement 
Avhich will prepare the way for this useful branch of know- 
ledge. At present the Chinese delights in a vague statement 
of even facts well known to himself. He calls certain of liis 
relations brothers, which term includes real brothers, cousins 
of more than one degree, and clansmen. He tells you a thing 
took place between 2 and 3 o'clock, when he might as well 
«ay 2.15 p.m.; he says there were between ten and twenty 
present, when he might as well say fifteen or sixten. Statistics 
from such an individual, it can be readily understood, are 
Avell-nigh impossible, else China would present a splendid 
field for an array of facts on leprosy ; for not only is it existent 
all over China, but it prevails extensively in the South, 
especially in the Canton province, where cases are very 
numerous in the silk districts. The Government has Leper 
Asylums at different centres of population in the South for 
the purpose of segregation, doles from the Emperor's bounty 
being granted to the lepers. These asylums are badly 
managed, as unfortunately most native charitable institutions 
are. The village for lepers at Canton is situated about two 
or three miles north of the City; there is accommodation 
there for 400 or 500, but it is not sufficient ; they are allowed 
in boats on the river as well, and outside the east gate of the 
City. 

The lepers in the leper village occupy themselves in 
making rope of cocoa-nut fibre, and brooms, «&c., which, 
though the inhabitants of the city are in mortal dread of 
the afflicted inmates, yet find a ready sale ; females, who 
have lost the outward symptoms of the disease, sell them in 
the market. Lepers also waylay funerals and demand alms, 
which are given, for fear that leper ghosts may torment the 



336 THINGS CHINESE. 

departed. The sums demanded are on a varying scale and 
fixed by the lepers according to their idea of the rank and 
wealth of the deceased. Such exorbitant sums are asked that 
they are sometimes refused, and then the lepers leap into the 
grave and prevent the interment. They accept promises of 
payment, but, if not fulfilled, exhume the corpse and retain 
possession of it until their demands are met. These demands 
of the lepers always form an item in the funeral expenses. 

In the leper boats, a single leper often resides wha 
paddles about seeking charity ; in such cases the boats are 
tiny little canoes with a mat-covering over the centre. They 
sometimes strip the dead bodies that float down the river, 
and, if they find one respectably dressed, occasionally advertise 
it for the reward that they hope to obtain. In the silk 
districts there would appear to be no asylums on land, 
but the lepers are restricted to the boats, from which they 
solicit cash by means of a long bamboo pole with a bag at 
the end. In some of the districts they occupy certain shrines 
on the river bank, and beg alms with rod and bag. 

The Chinese at Canton will have nothing to do with 
lepers ; and if the family of a rich man who has taken the 
disease tries to hide it, the neighbours, as a general rule, soon 
conipel his segregation. They are unable to cure it; and 
ascribe it to different causes ; one reason given is the rain- 
Mater dropping from a certain kind of tree on anyone ; 
another is, that tlie droppings from spiders cause it. Thev 
suppose it to work itself out in three or four generations, and 
it Avould appear to be a well established fact that in some of 
the large leper villages the proportion of lepers is but small, 
the disease having died out in the course of a century or so. 
Lepers in Canton marry amongst themselves, but not with 
others. When the disease is well developed, the sight is 
sickening ; the parts afi"ected, such as the face, ears, hand?, 
and feet are enlarged, and red, smooth, and glossy. At 
certain stages of the disease, spontaneous amputation of the 
fingers and toes takes place, for they rot and drop ofi". An 
improvement in diet, and tonics, better the condition of the 



LEPIiOS r. 33T 

patient, but there is still much to be learned us to the 
cause and treatment of this dreadful scourge. In two and a 
half years 125 lepers presented themselves at the Alice 
Memorial Hospital in Hongkong. 

'Throughout the greater part of the province of Shantiuig 
leprosy is seldom seen, and where it does exist it is mainly anicsthetic 
leprosy. But in the prefectures of Yi-chou Fu and Yen-chou Fu 
leprosy is quite common. The mr.jority of cases met with in 
missionary hospitals through the province come from these two 
prefectures, the one including the home of Confucius and the other, 
Vi-chow, lying to the south of it. The cases exhibit all the 
characteristics of true leprosy, and often in an extreme stage. It is not 
uncommon for villages in Yi-chou prefecture to have several lepers. 
Dr. Hunter, of Chining-chou, who has kindly furnished facts, regards 
the causes of the prevalence of leprosy in one section of a province, 
most parts of which arc free from it, to be mainly climacteric' 

In Soochow the l(>pevs live in their own homes and 
mingle with other people without any restriction. In tho 
North of China there are no leper villages, and, it would 
appear, no attempts at segregation whate\x'r. It is stated to 
be ' comparatively rare in the northern provinces of China 
excessively common in the southern.' 

On the basis of the number seen at the Soochow Hos- 
pital, a calculation has been made that there are probably 
150,000 lepers in China ; but this must be very much a guess. 
China is supposed to be the country in which there is the 
largest number. * In India there are said to be 500,000.' 
Again it is stated that 'according to the census of 1S91 after 
making allowing for error, it is estimated that in British India 
there were 105,000.' •' Judging from what is seen in the coast 
towns and treaty ports [in China] the number of lepers there 
i.? even greater than in India.' It is questionable whether a 
])lace such as Soocliow, where 'less than one in two thousand 
(if the sick are afflicted with this dise.ise,' affords a reliable 
basis to form an estimate of the prevalence of the disease 
throughout China. (Another estimate puts down the number 
in China, India, and Siberia as LOOO.OOO.) Another of 
these attempts at guessing puts the lepers in China as 300,000. 
As an example of districts where leprosy is more common, 
it may be mentioned that during a week at Chao Chow-fu 

U 



338 THINGS CHINESE. 

from two to three or four a day, so diseased, appeared amongst 
about forty or more patients, and this was not an exceptional 
week. In the tract of country round Swatow with a popula- 
tion not much less than that of Scotland, it is estimated that 
there are 25,000 lepers ; and, to one accustomed to the horror 
the Cantonese have of the disease, it was extraordinary to 
.see the utter carelessness the natives evinced in their contact 
with the subjects of this loathsome malady. Just outside the 
city of Chao Chow-fu the author saw a leper lad sitting at 
the road side and eating out of a bowl which had evidently 
been obtained from a hawker's stall, such a thing being 
utterly out of the question at Canton. In a shop in one of 
the principal streets of the same important city, a leper was 
pointed out to the writer. He was busy at work in a tailor's 
shop. The utter nonchalance with which the people in this 
part of the country regard the lepers, and the utter absence 
of all precautions in their intercourse with them is most 
extraordinary. There are leper villages, so we were informed, 
in some of which the disease has died or is dying out ; but 
some poor miserable huts and temples are also tenanted by 
lepers on the road side. 

Leprosy does not appear to be on the increase in China, 
though in some parts every opportunity is given for its 
spread. Doubtless were every precaution taken against 
the possibility of contagion from it, and a rigid system of 
segregation enforced throughout the empire it might be 
stamped out as it is said it was in England some centuries 
since. 

From historical references to it, it seems to have been 
known in China some two or three hundred years before the 
time of Confucius ; the sage himself had a disciple who died of 
this dreadful disease. It is very curious to find some districts 
of country quite free from this horrible infliction while other 
parts in the neighbourhood are affected with it. It is a great 
comfort to the European residents in China to find that its 
power of contagion is comparatively speaking so slight. It is, 
however, contagious and perhaps communicable in some way 



LEPROSY. 33» 

or other as well, so that it behoves those that are brought 
into contact with cases of it to take every precaution instead 
of being so foolhardy as to ignore its communicability. The 
author knows of one notable case where the disease was taken 
by an American missionary, who died after some years in all 
the horrors incident to it : the cause evidently, in this case, 
being a Chinese who had the disease having his quarters in 
the same dwelling as the missionary. After his removal 
from the house a Chinese woman, who occupied the same 
room that the leper had previously had, also took it. It is 
said that some Euroj)ean women in Australia have taken 
it from their leprous Chinese husbands. There are 19 
Chinese lepers in Little Bay, N. S. W. lazar-house amongst 
a total of 36. The bacillus of leprosy is l-100,000th of an 
inch in diameter. ' In length it is from half to two-thirds. 
and in breath about one-sixteenth, the diameter of a blood- 
corpuscele.' 

We close this article with a short extract from Dr. 
Manson's recent work, 'Tropical Diseases ' : — 

'Seeing that leprosy is caused by a specific germ, there must 
have been a time in the history of every leper when the infecting 
germ entered the body. In the case of many specific diseases * * * 
the time of infection can usually be ascertained. So far as present 
knowledge goes, this much cannot be affirmed of leprosy. * '■ * 
We are eqally ignorant as to the condition of the infecting germ, 
whether it enters the organ or organs through which it gains access as 
spore or as bacillus ; and, also, as to the medium in or by which it 
is conveyed. We cannot say whether it enters in food, in water, in 
air ; whether it passes in through the broken epithelium, or whether 
it is inoculated on some broken breach of surface, or, perhaps, 
introduced by some insect bite. But, though we are in absolute 
ignorance as to the process of infection, we may be quite sure that in 
leprosy there is an act of infection, and that the infective material 
comes from another leper. Leprosy has never been shown to arise 

Sodlm rrnimmciifh'd. — 'Leprosy,' lij' G. Thin, Jr.D.. jip. 52-()l, spe.nks 
about leprosy in Cliina. The Eejiorts of different Medical Missionary 
Hospitals in South-eastern China have occasionally contained notes on 
leprosy and accounts of treatments with more or less beneticial results. 
'Leprosy in Hongkong,' by J. Cantlie, M.A., m.b., f.k.c.s., also contains 
notes of cases and treatment at the Alice Memorial Hosi)ital in Hongkong 
attached to a monograph on the subject. Gray's 'China,' Vol. 2, j). 51. 
Some interesting papers on this disease, have appeared in 'The China 
Medical Missionarv Journal ; ' see especiallv Vol. IL p. o'.K ' The Chinese, 

u 2 



340 THINGS CHINESE. 

their Present and Future; Medical, Political, and Social,' bj' R. Coltman^ 
■Jr., M.D., Chiip. IX, Leprosy. ' Tropical Dii-eases : A Manual of the Dis- 
eases of Warm Climates' by P. Manson, M.D., L.L.D. (Sec. Chap XXVI. 
pp. 38B-422. 

LIGHTHOUSES.— The lighthouse system in Chinese 
waters is under a department of the Imperial Maritime 
Customs, and is only one of the many advantages which have 
resulted from a foreign staff being in the employ of the 
Chinese Government. 'The light-houses on the China co:\st 
have a luminous intensity equal to that of the best non- 
electric lighthouses in the world. The lighting and main- 
tenance are attended to with the greatest punctuality, and 
tliere has never been a complaint as to the regularity of 
working and amount of safety afforded.' Some of the most 
important positions have been selected for their display; and 
frmn jSTewehwang in the north to the Island of Hainan in tlie 
south, and along the Yang-tsz and Canton Rivers, these 
indispensable aids to the navigator extend. They are mostly 
on land, though a few are lightships ; and they are either fixed,, 
fixed aad flashing, or group flashing, revolving, or occulting ; 
the illuminating apparatus is either catoptric or dioptric. 
Besides these, there are a number of buoys and beacons. 
The lights, &c. are being added to, and the department 
increased as tine goes on. Since the first lights were 
started in the years 1855, 1859, and 1863, up to 1895 or 
1896, there have been but nine years in which a new light 
has not been exhibited, Avhile in a few years the total of new 
ones for the year rose as high as nine or ten. At the end 
Lif 1897 there were 105 lights, 4 light-vessels, 82 buoys, and 
()5 beacons, making a total of 256 under the control of this 
department of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs 
Service. 

Leaving out those on the Canton River as well as those 
at Chinkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow, there are approximately 
about one light to every hundred and two miles of coast line. 
A few years ago there was a lighthouse to every fourteen, 
miles of English coast, one to every thirty-four of Irish coast, 
and one to every thirty-nine of Scotch shore line. It must,. 



LITERATURE. 341 

however, be remembered that about two-thirds of the Chinese 
lights are at those ports mentioned above. The staff required 
for the maintenance of the lights is composed of both foreigners 
and natives ; the former numbering sixty-four and the latter 
one hundred and ninety-six. 

Besides these there are three lighthouses in the British 
Colony of Hongkong, and one in the Portuguese Colony of 
Macao. 

LIl'ERATURE.—' Vntold treasures lie hidden in the 
rich lodes of Chinese literature.' This may be considered a 
sufficient answer to those who question if there is anything 
worth seeking for in Avhat has been termed by another 
equally learned sinologue the barren wilderness of Chinese 
literature. 

Numbers of books of great antiquity have left no 
remembrance behind them but that of their names, or, at the 
best, but little else. Some fragments are reputed to have 
survived from before the time of Confucius (B.C. 550). The 
sage said of himself that he was a transmitter, not an 
originator, and, as such, he utilised material, that was in 
existence to a great extent previously, in the production of 
the works which are attributed to his hand. From the time 
of Confucius onward, for some centuries, the numerous 
writings produced by the different philosophers give evidence 
of mental vigour, and activity. The power of the literary 
class, backed up by their arsenals of learning, and their 
muniments of classical lore, were forces that threatened to 
thwart, by their conservative and other tendencies, the iron 
will of the nionaich, who rendered himself infamous in 
Chinese history by his despotic and cruel attempt to sweep 
the obstructive literati and their books out of his path of 
progress. Works on medicines, divination, and husbandry. 
Avere the only ones that were exempt from the storm of 
destruction that swept over the land with the exception of 
those, not a few in number, that surreptitiously weathered the 
tempest buried in mountain holes and hidden behind Avails, 
•or stored up in the memory of some who prized them better 



342 THINGS CHINESE. 

than life itself. After the night of desolation rose the- 
brighter dawn of the Han dynasty, when every effort was^ 
made to recover the lost treasures, and Avith such success 
that considerably over ten thousand volumes, or sections of 
books, the work of some hundreds of authors, were gathered 
together. But unfortunately this library, collected with such 
care, was destroyed by fire at the close of the dynasty, and 
other destructions of valuable imperial collections have taken 
place more than once since. It has, however, been the pride 
of succeeding dynasties to follow the example of the Han, 
and every encouragement has been given to literature. 

The T'ang dynasty especially deserves notice for its 
patronage of letters. The classification now extant was 
then adopted, viz. : — the four divisions of Classics, History, 
Philosophy, and Belles Lettres ; but these are so numerously 
subdivided, that a mere list of them would occupy a page 
and a half. It will thus be seen that, except in a work 
especially devoted to that purpose, it would be impossible to 
give even a resume of the vast field thus covered. We must 
content ourselves with the indication of a few of the mor& 
salient points. 

The Classical writings occupy the foremost position not 
only as regards antiquity, but they are also regarded as the 
foundation of all learning by the Chinese; and they have 
been the cause of the production of not a small proportion 
of Chinese books. 

The 'Four Books ' and the ' Five Classics ' are the chief 
amongst the classical works of the Chinese. The ' Four 
Books' consist of 'The Confucian Analects,' 'The Great 
Learning, 'The Doctrine of the Mean,' and 'The Works of 
Mencius.' The ' Five Classics ' consist of ' Tlie Book of 
Changes,' ' The Book of History,' ' The Book of Odes,' ' The 
Book of Rites,' and 'The Spring and Autumn Annals.' The 
last is the only one of which Confucius is actually the author, 
though he compiled 'The Book of History ' and 'The Odes.' 
' The Book of Changes ' is regarded with almost universal 
jeverence, both on account of its antiquity, and also for the- 



LITERATURE. 34-5 

unfathomable wisdom which is supposed to be concealed 
under its mysterious symbols. 

•' The Four Books,' which rank next after ' The Five 
Classics,' are, for the most part, the words, conversations, and 
opinions of Confucius and Mcncius, as recorded by their 
disciples. Around these, and a few other works, haa 
gathered an immense collection of commentaries and works 
elucidative of the Classics ; among these the Chinese class 
dictionaries, over the production of whicli much labour has 
been spent by eminent Chinese scholars in order to conserve 
the purity of the language. 

Historical works, or dynastic histories, are sub-divided 
into a number of divisions. These have been compiled 
dynasty after dynasty on a general plan, dealing first with the 
Imperial Records, then the Arts and Sciences, followed by a 
Biographical Section. The latest compilation of them is 
called ' The Twenty-four Histories,' comprised in 3,264< books 
by over twenty diiferent authors, commencing with Sz-ma 
Tsin, the Herodotus of China. 

Historical Annals. — This class of histories contains 
a concise narrative of events on the plan of ' The Spring and 
Autumn Annals.' Among the most celebrated of these is the 
Tsz Chi Tung Kin, of the famous historian Sz-ma Kwang, in. 
291' books, which occupied the author nineteen years in 
writing. 

Another division of historical Avorks is that of 'The- 
Complete Records ' in which a general view of a particular 
subject is taken, 'The Historical Classic' being taken as the 
example. 

Besides these, there are several other divisions of 
Historical Works, such as 'Separate Histories,' 'Miscellaneous 
Histories,' ' Official Documents,' and ' Biographies/ which last 
are very numerous and some ancient, one being more than 
two thousand years old. Added to these, are 'Historical 
Excerpta,' ' Contemporary Records,' which deal with other 
co-existant states, and ' Chronography.' this last heading 



34.1. THINGS CHINESE. 

■comprising a small category, 'The Complete Antiquarian 
Researches ot" ^la Twan-li'n/ A.D. 1275, is 'a most extensive 
and profound work.' 

Another division is that of Geographical and Topo- 
graphical Works. Among these is the famous ' Hill and River 
iylassic/ containing wonderful accounts of countries inhabited 
by pigmies and giants ; of men with a hole through the 
middle of their bodies, who when going out for an airing 
have a pole thrust through it and are thus hoisted on 
the shoulders of two men and carried along ; of one-sided 
people, who have only one arm and one leg, and w^ho have 
to walk in couples ; as they cannot stand alone ; of tiny 
pigmies who, like alpine travellers, rope themselves together 
to prevent large birds carrying them off; of numerous 
wonderful and strange objects in the animal creation as well 
as fish and snakes with many heads, and fish with many 
bodies to one head. It is very amusing to look through 
an illustrated edition of this book, and though it contains 
many strange vagaries, it was probably originally a bona 
Jide attempt at an account of Avhat were actually considered 
to exist ; it is a work of great antiquity. In this connection 
it is interesting to note that Pliny speaks of the Blemmyans, 
an African tribe that were headless, the eyes and mouth 
being in the breast — *Blemmys traduntur capita abesse, 
■ore et oculis pectori aifixis.' Historia Naturalis Bk. V. Ch. 3. 
See also the ' Tempest ' Act. Ill, Sc. 3. . 

' When we, were boys, 

Who would believe that there were * * * 

* * ^ * * * * *such men 

Whose heads stood in their breasts ? ' 

Every small division of the empire has its topographical 
work dealing with its own history, antiquities, towns, curi- 
osities, and anything of interest connected with it ; one on 
Kwang-tung, being a historical and statistical account of 
that province is in 182 volumes. The late Dr. Wylie well 
said of this department of Chinese literature : ' The series of 
topographical writings in China are pl'obably unrivalled in 



LITERATURE. 3*5 

any nation, for extent and systematic comprehensiveness.' 
Works on the water-courses also find a place in this section. 

There are categories under which come bibliographical 
.find other works. 'One of the finest specimens of Bibliography 
possessed by this or perhaps any other nations * * * is 
a descriptive catalogue (in 400 books) of the Imperial Library 
-of the present dynasty.' The Index Expurgatorius is also 
contained in this division, and several tens of thousands of 
volumes are prohibited in whole or in part. The Historical 
division ends with the section of ' Historical Critiques.' 

The third great division, that of philosophers, includes, not 
only that class, but writers on Religion, the Arts and the Sciences, 
Sec Original thinkers are found amongst the Chinese authors 
who have not subscribed to the Confucian teaching, and some 
of our modern Western ideas have already seen the light of 
day in the Far East long before they were ever dreamt of by 
our Western moral philosophers. 

The immense mass of matter to be found under this 
grand heading may be judged from its sub-divisions, viz. : — 
I. 

2. 

3- 
4- 
5- 
6. 



Under this lieading come "The Sacred Edicts ' : moral 
maxims written by the second Emperor of the present 
<:ly nasty for the instruction of the people. Taking these 
maxims for texts, a series of homiletic sermons were 
composed on them by his successor, and they are read aloud 
to the public on the 1st and loth of every month throughout 
the empire. 

Medical works claim attention from the numerous 
writers on this branch. The oldest work was written several 
centuries before the Christian era. It has been supposed 
from their minute account of the human body that the 



Literati. 


8. 


Arts. 


Writers on Military Affairs. 


9- 


Repertories. 


Writers on Legislation. 


lO, 


Miscellaneous Writers 


Writers on Agriculture. 


1 1. 


Cyclopaedias. 


Medical Writers. 


12. 


Essayists. 


Astronomy and Mathematics. 


13- 


Taouism. 


Divination. 


14. 


Buddhism. 



346 THINGS CHINESE. 

Chinese, at one time, practised dissection. If so, however,, 
the remembrance of it has long been forgotten, and their 
medical works are characterised by groundless theories,, 
which, considering the low state of science until recent 
years even in the West, is not much to be wondered at. (Sec 
Article on Doctors.) 

Astronomy axd Mathematics.— The Chinese in 
ancient times represented the starry firmament by three 
different methods. First, as a concave sphere ; secondly, 
a globe is taken to represent the universe, and stars are 
placed on the outer surface ; the third method is not known 
at present, but it is supposed to bear a close analogy to that 
of the West. The Jesuit missionaries assisted the Chinese 
materially in righting their calendar, and in other matters 
connected with astronomy, contributing their quota also to- 
the books on astronomy and other mathematical matters. 
One of the native books on Mathematics has quite an 
interesting history. It is supposed to have been in use in 
the Chau dynasty, was destroyed in the general burning 
of books by Tsin Chi' Hwang-ti, after which imperfect 
fragments of it were gathered together during the Han 
dynasty, when additions were made to them ; a commentary" 
was written on it, and an exposition ; it was well known in 
the T'ang dynasty, preserved as a rarity in the Sung, and 
entirely lost in the Ming ; but fortunately it was possible to 
gather up the fragments that were found in one of those 
gigantic cyclopredias, which the Chinese have been so fond of 
forming, containing copious quotations from thousands of 
books and taking years of toil to compile. The copy now in 
existence has thus been gathered together piecemeal in 
this way and has been found to agree with quotations and 
with the description given of the book. ' It is divided into 
nine sections, viz. : — Plain Mensuration, Proportion, Fellow- 
ship, Evolution, Mensuration of Solids, Alligation, Surplus 
and Deficit, Equations, and Trigonometry.' It contains- 
246 problems. The illustrations have unfortunately been 
lost. 






LITERATURE. 34-7 

Under the heading of Divination are not a few works ; 
books on dreams coming under the same section, the counter- 
parts of 'The Napoleon Dream-Book' and 'The Egyptian 
Dream-Book' in English. 

As to books on Arts, Wylie remarks :— - 

'However the Chinese may dififer from Western nations in 
matters of mere convention, the fact that they have methodical 
treatises, of more than a thousand years standing, on Painting, 
Writing, Music, Engraving, Archery, Drawing, and kindred sub- 
jects, ought surely to secure a candid examination of the state of 
such matters among them, before subjecting them to an indiscriminate 
condemnation.' 

Under Repertories of Science are Cyclopaedias. The most 
remarkable under this heading is that prepared by direction 
of the second Emperor of the Ming dynasty ; two thousand 
two hundred scholars were employed on the work, which was 
to include the ' substance of all the classical, historical,. 
philosophical, and literary works hitherto published, em- 
bracing astronomy, geography, the occitlt sciences, medicine, 
Buddhism, Taouism, and the arts.' It was publised in 22,877 
books, and the table of contents filled 60 books. Wholesale 
.selections were made of some books : in this way '385 ancient 
and rare works have been preserved, which would otherwise 
have been irrecoverably lost.' 

A fine specimen of the voluminous encyclopaedias the 
Chinese so delight in. is to be found in the British Museum. 
It consists of 6,109 volumes. The Museum authorities have 
had it rebound into 1,000 volumes, which require ten table- 
cases to accomodate it. 

Essayists. — AVorks of fiction are despised, as a rule, by 
the Chitiese literati, but they form a most interesting and 
valuable portion of the vast body of literature which has, for 
more than twenty centuries past, been in ever increasing 
volume seeing the light of day. The most popular is the 
historical romance. ' The San Kwok Chi,' dealing with the 
period from A.D. 168 to 265. The plot 'is wrought out with 
a most elaborate complication of details,' it abounds with 
the marvellous and supernatural, and is laid amidst the 



348 THINGS CHINESE. 

stirring scenes after the fall of the Han dynasty. ' The Dream 
of the Red Chamber ' is another popular novel dealing witli 
domestic life, but not moral in its tone. Another holding the 
highest estimation, in the opinion of all classes, from the 
purity of its style, is ''I he Pastimes of the Study,' full of 
tales of wonder and mystery. This has been translated into 
English by Mr. Giles under the title ' Strange Tales from a 
Chinese Studio,' in two volumes. Cliinese novels contain 
much that would be considered tedious by an English reader. 
Minute details are entered into about the characters and the 
localities ; trifling particulars and lengthy conversations are 
given ; long digressions, prolix descriptions, and sermonising 
are all indulged in ; but the ' authors render their characters 
interesting and natural.' The characters are well sustained 
at times ; there is of course a plot, and much of what goes to 
make up the main portion of a tale in Western lands is also 
introduced, such as the troubles of the hero and heroine, 
complicated by the evil machinations of the villain, and all 
the accessories of plot and counterplot, and at last the grand 
finale arrives in a happy marriage. All showing that 
human nature is alike the wide world over, the surroundings, 
of course, having on Eastern cast in the one case. There is, 
however, a large class of this literature which cannot be 
commended. 

Buddhist Literature. — Buddhist books include many 
translations of Buddhistic works from the Sanscrit, as well as 
-original compositions. 

Taoist Literature. — The Tao Teh King is the only 
work known to be produced by Lo-tsz. The aspect of Taoism 
has changed since its early days ; its votaries, who believed 
in alchemy, and the subduing of animal propensities, have 
been succeeded by a set of even worse charlatans (see Article 
on Taoism). Books dealing with the gods and genii are 
found under this heading. One of the most popular of all 
Taoist works is 'The Book of Recompenses and Rewards' (of 
a future state), which has gone through innumerable editions, 
and is sometimes issued embellished with anecdotes and 



LITERATURE. 341>' 

illustrated with wood'jut.s. It is thought ;i great act of merit 
to distribute it. 

Belles Lettres. in whicli arc included Polite Literature, 
Poetry, and Analytical Works. There are numbers of divisions. 
The class of ' Individual Collections ' deserves attention, as 
it is "'one of the most prolific branches of Chinese literature/ 
but short-lived. In this class may be noted the collections 
of the two celebrated poets of the T"'ang and Sung dynasties, 
Iji Tai-peh and Su Tung-po, comprised in 30 and 115 books, 
and that of the celebrated historian and statesman Sz-mii- 
Kwang in 80 books. IMost of the emperors of the present 
dynasty have contributed their share to this branch of 
Chinese literature. 

Under the heading of ' General Collections ' are classed 
selections of choice specimens of acknowledged merit from 
the pens of various authors. One of 'the greatest enterprises 
in the history of book-making' may be noted in this connection ; 
it saw the light of day in the time of the Sung dynasty, 
and consisted of 1,000 volumes, being an 'extensive collection 
of all specimens of polite literature subsequent to the Leang 
dynasty. * * * Nine-tenths of the whole were made 
up of the writing of the T'ang scholars.' 

Rhymes and Songs (see Article on Poetry). 

Drama. — The Drama is not included in native book 
catalogues, though considerable works are found of that 
nature. It was developed at a comparatively late date — the 
latter end of the T'ang dynasty saw its urigin. It continued 
to improve until the time of the Yuan dynasty, Avhen the 
best collection of plays was published as 'The Hundred 
Plays of the Yuan Dynasty ' (See Article on Theatre). 

Professor Douglas thus writes of Chinese literature as a 
whole : — 

• In the countless volumes which have appeared and are 
appearing from the many publishing centres, we sec mirrored the 
temperament of the people, their excellences, their deficiencies, and 
their peculiarities. Abundant evidence is to be found of their activity 
in research and diligence in compilation, nor are signs wanting which 
point to the absence of the faculty of imagination, and to an inability 



350 THINGS CHINESE. 

to rise beyond a certain degree of excellence or knowledge, while 
at the same time we have seen displayed the characteristics both of 
matter and manner, which most highly commend themselves to the 
national taste. 

As a consequence of the very unplastic natin-e of the language, 
there is wanting in the literature that grace of diction and varying 
force of expression which are found in languages capable of inflection 
and of syntactical motion. The stiff angularity of the written 
language, composed as it is of isolated, unassimilating characters, 
robs eloquence of its charm, poetry of its musical rhythm, and works 
of fancy of half their power ; but in no way interferes with the relation 
of facts, nor the statement of a philosophical argument. 

And hence to all but the Chinese mind, which knows no other 
model of excellence, the poetical and fanciful works of Chinese authors 
offer fewer attractions than their writings on history, science, and 
philosophy. Unlike the literatures of other countries, one criticism 
applies to the whole career of Chinese letters. It is difficult to 
imagine a nation of busy writers pursuing a course of literature for 
more than 3,000 years, and yet failing to display greater progress in 
thought and style than Chinese authors have done. That their works 
vary in quality no one who has read two Chinese books can doubt ; 
but the variations are within limits, and ''■' ■■- '■- the width of 
thought and power of expression have in no wise increased, at least, 
since the revival of letters under the Han dynasty, B.C. 206 — A.D. 25. r 

It is unfortunate that many of the finest passages of 
Chinese literature lose, when translated, their epigrammatic 
force, the play of words loses its sparkle, the glittering 
poetry is transformed into prosy periods, and what is full 
of life and spirit falls flat and tame on the foreign ear. 
The freshness of the flowers of speech is gone when the 
ideas of the original are plucked and transferred into the 
Englishman's receptacle of thought. In other words, just 
as the Chinese himself looks best in his native costume, 
the thoughts of his mind appear in their best when clothed 
in his native language — the foreign dress often fits them 
badly ; and, in short, many of the productions of a Chinese 
pen have to be read in the original, if the reader would 
appreciate to the full the brilliancy of some of these jewels 
of the first water ; for not a few stray passages, ripe Avith the 
love of the beautiful, are to be found scattered through the 
pages of Chinese literature, instinct with true poetic genius 
— glowing with the deep feeling caught from a communion 
with the hills and mountains, rivers, streams and babbling 



LANGUAGE. 351 

brooks, woods and forests, sunshine and storm, in solitudes 
away from the busy haunts of men. These ecstatic raptures 
■of the true child of nature strike a responsive chord in the 
breast of the Western barbarian. So charming are they in 
their simplicity, so in unison with every touch of nature, that 
one feels that the ardent lovers of the beauties of God's 
beautiful world speak but one language, equally understood 
by all who have revelled in such simple delights, and that 
there is no place round this wide wdde Avorld ' where their 
voice is not heard,' Avhether it be in the confines of the 
Middle Kingdom, or in what was the Ultima Thule of bar- 
barism when many of these fine passages were penned. 

It is, however, in comparison either with the literature 
-of other Eastern countries, or with our own some centuries 
■since, remembering at the same time their isolation and 
the want, to a comparatively great extent, of the vivifying 
influences of the competition of other countries pursuing the 
same researches and branches of knowledge, that the most 
just view can be taken of what Chinese literature is as a 
whole. With the patient toil, love of research, and passionate 
ardour for literary pursuits, it is an interesting speculation to 
give rein to one's fancies — to wonder, in short, what would 
have been the result had the Chinese possessed all the 
advantages we have been blessed with in the West, instead 
of presenting the unique spectacle of a nation self-contained 
and self-sufficient in all its requirements. The few chances 
they have had of assistance from the West, when once 
appreciated (for the Chinese, unlike the Japanese, are slow 
in accepting what is oflfered to them until fully proved and 
approved of), have been accepted and made good use of, as 
in the case of a knowledge of Sanscrit introduced by the 
Buddhist priests, and more lately in the introduction of 
Western knowledge and science, which no doubt is destined 
eventually to exercise a wonderful efiect. One of the greatest 
boons that can be conferred on this ancient and conservative 
empire, will be the knowledge that true Avisdom consists in 
the publication of books in the language of the people, and 



352 THINGS CHINESE. 

not in the book style — a style as remote from that of the 
former almost as Latin is from that of English. Then 
knowledge and learning will be the property of everyone 
instead of being confined to the lettered masses. 

Boolts rernvi'iiitndc'd. — H. A. Giles's ' Gems of Chinese Literatiii-e,' 
contains a selection from all times and classes. ' Notes on T'hinese 
Literature,' by the late Rev. A. VV)iie, L.L.D., is a list of hundreds of 
Chinese books, classified according to their subject matter, with notes of 
great interest on them, and a preface giving an account of Chinese literature. 
We cannot give a list here of the native works which have been translated 
into English and the other European languages : they are legion. 

MANCHOOS.— The family that now occupies the 
throne in China is not a native one, but one of ^Manchoo 
Tartars, beinsc a small branch of the Tunsfusic nomads. 
Their orijjinal habitat was in the neis'hbourhi^od of the Lonsr 
White Mountain. Transplanted from thence by the ambition 
of a capable leader, they have flourished in the wider area 
of China, which has given greater scope to their abilities 
tlian the narrow confines of Manchuria. 

The history of the whole of the region is a long one, 
and is blended with that of China through many generations 
and dynasties. 

Repeated weaves of incursions have swept into the North 
of China, or beaten against its borders to be driven back, and, 
losing their power for a period, have finally gathered strengtli 
and united their forces for another effort; this, perhaps, proving 
more successful than the last, has resulted in a partial or 
complete sway over the Middle Kingdom, which with its 
riches, has ever proved a tempting prey for its nomadic 
neighbours. 

The Manchoos have been known by various names: in 
their quiescent periods by that of Sishim, Sooshun, or Niijin, 
as well as by their numerous dynastic titles assumed when, 
under the vigorous guidance of a skilful chieftain, their power 
was consolidated and a simple tribal rule was developed into 
that of an incipient state, having within its comparatively 
small bounds the potentialities of mighty empires and 
kingdoms. History has only repeated itself in their case. 



MANCIIOOS. 353 

as in that of many others ; for the incursions of the Huns 
are only the movements in Europe of the same species of 
tribes who originated from the same neighbourhood, and 
who, on account of their selection of modern Europe 
as their stage in the one case, brought themselves more 
prominently before the eyes of the Western historian than 
the Manchu Tartars did when they overthrew the native 
Chinese dynasty in the other case. That overrun of Europe 
is more akin to the partial conquest of China — that 
part of it lying to the North of the Yellow River — by the 
Niijin or Sooshun, the ancestors of the present Manchus, 
where they ruled as the Kin dynasty for more than a century 
A.D. 1118 to 1235, contemporaneously with a native dynasty 
in the South of China, until both were deposed by another 
foreign dynasty, that of the Mongols under G^mghis Khan. 

In common with the other nomadic neighbours of China 
on her Northern frontier, the ance.'stors of the Manchu 
'J artars play a conspicuous part in the history of ancient 
China. Wars, intrigues, subterfuges, plots and counterplots, 
treachery, cruelty, and lies, fill up the pages of this history 
as much as they do those of the West, and, except to those 
specially interested in such incidents, prove but dry reading 
The Manchu power enlarged its realms, swallowing up 
neighbouring states, until it extended between the Gulf of 
Liau-tung and the Amoor ; and Manchuria was more populous 
than at any subsequent period, though the immigration into 
it now bids fair to raise it to an equally populous 
condition. Nor at this time could it have been in a low state 
of civilisation, as we are told that ' learning flourished and 
literature abounded.' This strong and extensive kingdom 
was battered to pieces by the Khitans ; and broke up into a 
number of small independent clans under separate chieftains, 
which, it would appear, relapsed again into a nomadic, rude, 
and primitive style of life. Consolidating again under the 
name of Niijin, they commenced activity once more and 
became a force and factor in the ceaselese Avars with, and 
against, the divided states of China, as well as the ncigh- 

X 



354 THINGS CHINESE. 

bouring kingdoms. In passing, we may notice that 
such seems to be the history of all the Mongolic tribes, viz. : 
first, a nomadic, primitive state, followed by increase of 
numbers and power, and a settled and highly civilised 
condition, to be followed, on final defeat and overthrow, by 
an abandonment of literature, cities, and agriculture, and a 
return to the primitive nomadic condition. 

But to return to the Niijin, who Avere rapidly developing 
into the second condition when their chief took the word 
Gold, Kin, for the title of his dynasty in contradistinction to 
tliat of the Liao, or Iron dynasty, that of the Khitans or 
Mongols, then ruling in Northern China, and whom he had 
defeated in battle, 'for iron, if strong, rusted; while gold 
always remained bright.' 

By the combination of the Sung and the Kin, the Liao 
dynasty was driven from the throne out of Northern China 
and the Kin substituted for it. The Yellow River had been 
the boundary between the Liao and Sung, whereas the 
Yang-tsz was the boundary between the Kin and the Southern. 
Sung, which succeeded the broken-down Sung. The Amoor 
was the northern boundary of the Kin. They 'established 
themselves at Peking in A.D. 1118, whence they were driven, 
in A.D. 1235, by Genghis Khan, and fled back to the 
ancestral haunts, on the Songari and Liau Rivers.' Their 
modern descendants, after some centuries, again established 
themselves at Peking, and have reigned longer than their 
ancestors — from A.D. IGi^ to the present day — and over a 
larger extent of country, for the whole of the China of the 
present day is subject to them. We refer our readers to our 
article on History where, under the Ts'ing dynasty, the name 
they have elected to rule under, some short account will be 
found of their doings. 

Amongst the modern Manchus, Buddhism is in vogue, 
and spiritualism is believed in — in the shape of the fox, the 
stoat, or the tiger. They seem more religiously disposed 
than the Chinese, and Christian missions have also met with 



MANCHV LANGUAGE. 355 

success amongst them. They arc not so opposed to Western 
innovations as the Chinese. 

Their peaceful life and dependence upon charity has 
eaten much of the hardihood and bravery out of the men as 
a nation; but the rulers are still able men. They do not bind 
the feet of the women. 

BooJis recommended. — A series of articles .ippeaved in ' The Phoenix, 
for 1871, entitled 'The Origin of the Manchus," by H. H. Howarth. 
' History of Corea,' by Rev. J. Ross contains a good deal about the early 
history of the Manchus ; and the ' Manchus or the Reigning D)'nasty of China." 
by the same author, gives a full account of their modern history. The 
same author has written a short essay on them entitled 'The Manchus.' 
published in the Records of the Missionary Conference held at Shanghai 
1890. 'The Manchus in China,' in 'China Review.' Vol. 1'), p. 263, by 
E. H. Parker. 

MANCHU LANGUAGE.— The Manchu language be- 
longs to the Turanian stock of languages, is entirely unlike 
Chinese, and is polysyllabic. It has been inferred that all the 
languages of Mongolia, Manchuria and Corea, were originally 
one language — at all events they were polysyllabic 2,000 
years ago. It will thus be seen that this language then 
boasts of a considerable antiquity; but knots in strings, 
notches in sticks, and such like devices of unlettered people 
Avere the only means of record. When a pressing need of a 
more intelligible mode of perpetuating their speech by visible 
signs was felt, the Manchus, in the time of the T'ang dynasty 
turned to the Chinese and studied Chinese letters and 
literature ; a desire to have a Avriting of their own arose 
amongst them, the Khitanes being the first to adopt some of 
the Chinese characters to stand for the syllables of their own 
language. This was in A.D. 920. Two kinds of characters 
were employed, but, though it is not a thousand years ago, 
not a trace of them, as far as is known, has been left behind . 

It would appear, however, that the Khitans only perfected 
former attempts made by others. The ancestors of the 
present Manchus used both this Khitan and Chinese writing, 
but, after conquering half of the Khitan empire, the Emperor 
ordered a new style of writing to be devised, and, pretty 
much in the same way as before, parts of Chinese characters 

X 2 



356 THINGS CHINESE. 

were used to express the sounds. In A.L). 1119 and 1135, 
two different styles were invented, and, as with the Khitans* 
former essay, were extensively used. This second written 
language was again forgotten and disused ; and the modern 
Manchus only learned from Chinese history that their 
ancestors possessed a written language of their own. Unfor- 
tunately it also appears to be irretrievably lost. These two 
written languages were written horizontally. The Mongols, 
successors of these ancient Manchus, (Churchens or Niichen), 
used Uigur writing for governmental matters, which is 
very like the ancient Syriac, or Sab^an, (whether it was 
introduced to this part of the world by the Nestorian 
missionaries, see Article on Missions, or earlier, is not known); 
and the Churchens or Manchus, who were subject to the 
Mongols, used this Uigur writting. They also used the Mongol 
language until the foundations of the Manchu empire were 
laid, when they discarded it, still using the Mongol alphabet 
to write the Manchu language ; but when many Chinese 
Avorks had been translated into Manchu, it was found that it,, 
the Mongol alphabet, was not a suitable medium to employ 
in writing Manchu. Improvements were then introduced, 
by which the ' Manchu writing acquired an alphabet distinct 
from Mongol ; and, although for two hundred years no 
further radical changes have been introduced, it has during- 
that time, in the course of long and extensive use, developed 
a roundness, elegance, and grace which still further distinguish 
it from its rude parent.' The alphabet is syllabic. There 
are six or eight vowels, eighteen consonants, and ten marks 
used in rendering Chinese syllables into Manchu. Modern 
Manchu is like Chinese, written in vertical columns. 

Every effort was made by the Manchu Government to 
foster the acquisition of their own language by Manchus : 
books were translated from the Chinese, for they had no 
literature of their own, and every means taken to make the 
Manchus a literary race, but all to no purpose, for the 
conquered race, the Chinese, have vanquished their conquerors. 
Though numbering five millions in 1848, they live scattered 



MANDARIN. 357 

in garrisons amongst the Chinese, and having to learn 
Chinese, and possessing no indigenous native literature, they 
have turned to Chinese books. 'There exist in all about 
250 works in Manchu, nearly all of which are translations 
from the Classics, some historical and metaphysical works, 
literary essays, collections of famous writers, novels, poetry, 
laws and regulations, Imperial edicts, dictionaries, phrase 
books, &c. Most of these translations are excellent, but they 
are all literal.' Not only with the common people, but with 
the Manchu Government itself, Chinese Avas of more im- 
portance, for what are five millions of people compared with 
three or four hundred millions ; so the consequence has been 
that Manchu is being rapidly forgotten, and is becoming an 
extinct language in China, though probably spoken in the 
wilds of Manchuria. 

Bool-s recommended. — ' History of the Manchu language, from the 
Preface to Professor I. Zacharoff's Manchu-Russian Dictionarj-, 1875, 
translated from the Eussian by M. F. A. Fraser,' being two articles in the 
March and April, 1891, numbers of 'The Chinese Recorder.' 'Essay on 
Manchu Literature ' in ' Journal of China Br. of R. A. S.' Vol XXIV. (1890) 
jip. 1 — 45. ' Translation of the T'sing Wen K'eung : a Chinese Gramtnar of 
the Manchu Tartar language, with introductory notes on Manchu literature,' 
by the late A. Wylie., Esq., L.L.D. ' A Manchu Grammar with Analysed 
Texts ' by P. G. von MoUendorff. In an Appendix at the end of the last 
work, is a list of the principal European works for the study of Manchu. 

MANDARIN. — The nomenclature applied to certain 
things Chinese has cast a glamour round them which a 
simpler naming would have avoided. A case in point is the 
term mandarin : with the rhythmic flow of this word and with 
its foreign flavour, a certain soupgon of the poetic and the 
mysterious is imported into it, so that the distant Westerner 
is apt, when reading about mandarins, to picture in his 
mind's eye some highly exalted and privileged class, the 
members of which are born to the purple, and dwell amidst 
halls of pleasure surrounded by affluence and luxury and 
ministered to by the poor down-trodden populace. A better 
appreciation of what mandarin means would doubtless have 
resulted had the terms used been officers of governments, or 
civil and military officials. 

The methods by which the ranks of the civil and 
military services are recruited, and some details about them. 



358 



THINGS CHINESE. 



will be found in our articles on Army, Examinations,. 
Government, and Navy. 

The word mandarin is derived from the Potuguese- 
•mandar, to command. The term mandarin is only applied 
to such officials as are called kwiin (kvvoon) by the Chinese 
and not to the subordinate class of officials. In other words 
it is restricted in its application to those officials who are 
entitled to wear a button. There are nine ranks of such 
officials, the buttons which distinguish them aie as follows: — 
for the first and second ranks, a transparent and opaque 
(ruby and coral) red button respectively ; for the third and 
fourth, a transparent and opaque blue (sapphire and lapis 
lazuli) button respectively; for the fifth and sixth, a 
transparent and opaque white (crystal and stone) button 
respectively; for the seventh, a plain gold one; and for the 
eight and ninth, a Avorked gold one. 

These buttons, as they have been called in English, are 
commonly of a round shape, about an inch in diameter, and 
form a knob on the apex of the conical-shaped official, or 
dress, hat. 

The difi'erent grades of civil and military officials also 
wear, as insignia of their rank, certain birds (in the case of 
those in the Civil Service) and certain animals (in the case 
of those in the Army and Navy), embroidered in a large 
square, of about a foot in size in its two dimensions, on the 
breast and back of their robes, as well as girdle clasps of 
different materials^both branches of the service using the 
same. The following is a list of these insignia ; — 







Civil. 


Army & Navy. 


Girdle Clasps. 


I St 


rank Manchurian crane 


Unicorn. 


Jade set in rubies. 


2nd 


;> 


Golden pheasant. 


Lion of India. 


Gold set in rubies. 


3rd 


J! 


Peacock. 


Leopard 


Worked gold. 


4th 


J5 


Wild Goose. 


Tiger 


Worked gold with sill 
ver button 


5th 


)» 


Silver pheasant 


Bear. 


Worked gold with plain 
siver button. 


6th 


39 


Egret 


Tiger-cat. 


Mother of pearl. 


7th 


;» 


Mandarin duck. 


Mottled bear. 


Silver. 


8th 


3J 


Quail. 


Seal. 


Clear horn. 


9th 


J3 


Longtailed jay. 


Rhinoceros 


Buffalo's horn. 



MARRIAGE. 35& 

IVIandavin, when applied to language, refers to the lingua 
Franca in use throughout China in official intercourse and 
in Courts of Justice; it is very poorly spoken by many, being 
mixed up with, localisms; it is also the spoecli, in its various 
dialects, in considerable parts of China. (See Article on 
Dialects). 

The word mandarin has also been used, by foreigners 
in China, to distinguish a lovely species of duck of beautiful 
plumage — the mandarin duck {anas galerkidata), which is 
an emblem of conjugal fidelity with the natives. For the 
same reason probably, that of superiority over others, it 
has also been used to designate a species of orange, the 
mandarin orange. (See Article on Fruit.) 

i/- 1 /i/i' /.-1 6r^. —Marriage is the one end and aim set 
forth for a girl : this is the goal to which she is taught to 
look forward, or to which her parents look forward for her, 
for it matters little about the girl herself She is almost a 
nonentity in the matter: her wishes are not consulted; she 
has often never seen her future husband ; she is even some- 
times hypothetically betrothed to a contingent husband, thnt 
is to say, two married couples agree that if one should have 
a son and the other a daughtei-, they shall be married when 
they grow up. From the last, it Avill be seen that the 
man is not much better off than the woman in these 
matters. Sometimes in the Swatow district, two families 
change girls in order that when grown-up they may be 
daughters-in-law in the respective families which have 
adopted them in this way. A great advantage in this 
method is its economy. It is not the parties themselves that 
are consided so much —for the individual is nothing in China 
— it is the respective families that are taken into account. A 
man in China does not marry so much for his own benefit as 
for that of the family: to continue the family name; to 
provide descendants to keep up the ancestral worship; and to 
give a daughter-in-law to his mother — to wait on her and be, 
in general, a daughter to her. So far are these ideas carried 
that if her future husband die before marriage, his intended 



-360 THINGS CHINESE. 

wife, if a model girl, will leave her own family and go and 
live with that of her deceased betrothed, and perform all the 
services which her position then requires of her. 

Nearly all the fun of life, and very little she has at the 
best, is gone as soon as a girl is engaged. She retires into a 
stricter seclusion than ever, and has to be very circumspect 
in her intercourse even with her own brothers. It would 
not be human nature if she did not manage sometimes to get 
a glance at her future husband, that is to say, it is not 
always impossible for her to see him ; but as to love-making, 
the prudery of Confucianism, and social customs and usages, 
utterly forbid such a thing : it is highly immoral. 

The marriage customs vary in different parts of the 
country, but the essential ceremonials preliminary to, and 
connected with, marriage are six; and even the details of 
these vary greatly. (See Article on Betrothal.) 

All having been satisfactorily arranged, and the money 
agreed upon in the contract having been paid to the girl's 
father, the final ceremonial which hands her over to her 
husband is performed. She is dressed in her best, and, 
when the procession comes for her, is placed in the grand, 
red, marriage sedan-chair, in which she never rides again. 
This chair is a heavy cumbrous article of wood, highly 
ornamented with carving and kingfishers' feathers ; the 
bride inside is completely secluded from profane gaze, and on 
a hot summer's day the position cannot be an enviable 
one, though a Chinese girl probably stands it better than 
an English girl (so accustomed to fresh air and freedom 
of motion) would; but even for Chinese girls the ordeal 
is sometimes greater than they can bear, and when the 
bridegroom opens the door, it is sometimes found that the 
poor little bride has escaped from all the future troubles of 
married life. At times the wedding chair has to cross a 
river on its route, and woe betide the girl if the heavy chair 
•causes the cranky boat to capsize. Should the bride elect 
-die before her marriage, the future husband marries his 



MARRIAGE. 361 

dead bride, but as the Chinese customs with regard to men 
are different from those with regard to women, he is free to 
marry again, Tlie young lady does not name the day, as 
with us, but the father of the bridegroom does that. 

Her trousseau is sent to her future home before her 
marriage, and is made the occasion for a procession, the 
bearers of the various objects being clad in red jackets, and 
parading through the streets. For some days preceding the 
wedding, the girl, with her sisters and friends, * bewails and 
laments her intended removal from the home of her fathers.' 
The bridal chair, which we have already mentioned, is 
carried last in the wedding procession ; many carved wooden 
pavilions (carved, open, wooden stands with, or without, 
covers over them, as the case may be) with sweetmeats, and 
the inevitable music, lanterns, and other objects which go 
to make up a Chinese procession are not absent. It wends 
its way to the bride's home, where the friend of the bride- 
groom presents a letter to her, written on red paper tinged 
with gold, urging the bride to come. This letter is carefully 
kept by the bride, and is somewhat the equivalent of 
* marriage lines ' in England. After certain ceremonials are 
gone through, the bride makes her appearance, but her 
features are concealed effectually, not by a white veil (white 
is mourning), but by a piece of red silk. After saluting the 
friend of the bridegroom, she enters the chair and is borne 
with the clashing of gongs and the playing of the Chinese 
Wedding March to the bridegroom's house. Preceding her are 
the only equivalents of bridesmaids, female attendants ; and 
her younger brother follows in an ordinary chair. Arrived 
at her future home, the chair is set down. The bridegroom 
is at the door with his fan, with which he knocks at the door 
of the chair, which the bridesmaids open, and the red-veiled 
bride, still with face unseen, steps out. 

* She is placed on the back of a female servant, and carried over 
a slow charcoal fire. * ""' '■-'' Above her head, as she is conveyed 
over the charcoal fire, another female servant raises a tray containine 
several pairs of chop-sticks, some rice, and betel-nuts. By this time 
the bridegroom has taken his place on a high stool, on which he 



362 THINGS CHINESE. 

stands to receive his bride, who prostrates herself at the foot, and does 
obeisance to her lord. This high stool is intended to indicate the 
great superiority of the husband over the wife. •' * •■'■ Descending 
from his elevated position, the bridegroom removes the veil of red 
silk. Now for the first time he catches a glimpse of his wife's face. 
It is still, however, more or less hidden by the strings of pearls which 
han^^ from her bridal coronet. The bridal pair are conducted to the 
ancestral hall, where they prostrate themselves before the altar on 
which the ancestral tablets are arranged. Heaven and Earth, and 
the gods of the principal doors of the house, and the parents of the 
bride are the next objects of their worship. A further act of homage, 
which consists in pouring out drink-offerings to the ancestors of the 
family, having been duly performed by the bridegroom only, the 
happy couple are escorted to the bridal chamber, where, they find 
the orange-tree with its strings of cash, emblems of fruitfulness and 
wealth, and the burning tapers, which formed a part of the procession, 
placed on the nuptial couch. From the top of the bed are suspended 
three long strips of red paper,' coiitaining good wishes : one being, 
' May you have a hundred sons and a thousand grandsons.' ' The 
bridegroom having now saluted the bride, they sit down and partake 
of tea and cake.' The bride tries hard at this time to get a piece of 
her husband's dress under her when she sits down, tor, if she does, it 
will ensure her having the upper hand of him, while he tries to prevent 
her and to do the same himself. The strings of pearls which hang 
from her coronet are now 'drawn aside by the maids in attendance, 
in order that the bridegroom may have an opportunity of seeing the 
features of his bride, who, that he may receive a correct impression of 
them, has carefully omitted the use of rouge in her toilet operations. 
«s o •» While the bridal pair are thus engaged, many of the 
relatives and friends assembled to celebrate the wedding, enter 
the chamber, and freely remark on the personal appearance of the 
bride.' This must be a trying ordeal to a modest retiring girl, as the 
observations are loud enough for all to hear. Her new relatives and 
friends wish her many children ; and the bridegroom soon leaves her 
to mix with his guests. 'At seven o'clock in the evening a banquet 
in honour of her parents-in-law is prepared by the bride. When all 
things are ready, the parents enter the banqueting-hall, where the 
bride, after bringing the principal dish, or caput cccfmvi, from the 
kitchen and placing it on the table with her own hands, assumes the 
position of a waiting maid. Filling the cup of her father-in-law with 
wine, she presents it to him with both hands, and whilst he is 
drinking the contents, she kneels at his feet and twice knocks her 
head upon the ground. To her mother-in-law, whose cup she now 
fills, slie is equally reverential. The banquet over, and the parents- 
in-law having washed their hands, the bride is called upon to partake 
of a repast. On a table which her father-in-law orders the servant to 
place at the top of the steps by which the dining-hall is approached, 
various viands are set, and she is invited to occupy a chair on the 
east side of the table. Her mother-in-law fills a cup of wine and 
presents it to her. Before receiving it, however, she rises from her 
chair, and kneeling at the feet of her mother-in-law, does obeisance by 
twice knocking her head upon the ground. * '■ '•'■ In some of 

the districts round Canton it is not unusual for the bride to be kept 



MARRIAGE. 363 

up during the greater part of the night ' answering riddles put to her 
generally by the bridegroom's relatives aud friends. The gentlemen 
sometimes get drunk, and disturbances arise. 

It only remains to be said that on tho third day the 
ancestors are worshipped again, aud a visit is paid by the 
young lady to her own father and mother, the bridegroom 
also paying a visit on the same day. On the evening of the 
fourth day, there is a dinner party for the friends of the 
newly-married couple, women and men eating separately — 
the bride and bridegroom waiting on their guests. This is 
a brief account of some of the ceremonials attendant on 
weddings in Canton. The boat p^^ople have different customs, 
and each district of country differs more or less in these 
matters. 

In Swatow the bride does not ride in a red wedding- 
chair like the Cantonese bride. The chair is not made of 
wood, as it is in Canton, nor is the bride fastened up in it J 
red cloth hangings are put over the chair and it is a larger 
one than the one in common use, being like an official chair- 
A catty or two of raw pork is hung by a string outside of 
the door of the sedan chair. When she arrives at the 
bridegroom's house she steps over a flare-up fire on the 
ground, made by burning a few whisps of dry grass. The 
idea is said to be to purify the bride from the contamination 
of any devils or other dangers that she may have come 
across on the road. The bride does not return to visit her 
parents on the third day after marriage, but four months 
after. On the third day after marriage, the Swatow bride 
receives a visit from her younger brother or from some boy in 
the neighbourhood of her parents' house in case she has no 
younger brother. This younger brother or boy brings a 
little peanut oil for lights (lamps). The Swatow bride goes 
to worship at the Ancestral Hall, on the 15th of the 1st 
moon, for the first three years after her marriage, (a woman 
is a bride for three years); and in the first year men as 
well as women, strangers as well as those who know her, 
are all free to go and have a look at her. At such a time 
she gives coolie oranges to the children to eat, and to the 



36i THINGS CHINESE. 

grown-up people she offers tea ; while the married people 
give presents of cash or silver in red paper parcels to her. 

A curious marriage custom prevails in the province of 
Yunnan. Chinese call it the woman marrying the man. It 
has been described by a traveller as follows : — 

' The ceremonies attending this kind of marriage are on a smaller 
scale than those observed in the case of ordinary marriages and 
consist principally in the man coming to the woman's house, where 
slie has her family and friends gathered for the occasion. The door 
is shut and the man must knock. His intended then asks who is 
there, in reply to which he gives his name and particulars. She 
then asks him if he wishes to come to her house and stop with her, to 
which he replies that he will come and live with her in good 
partnership. The door is then opened, the man is admitted, and the 
festivities commence. The wife, by marrying a man in this way, 
agrees to keep her husband in everything, but contracts no other 
obligation towards him. It is her house and she may do in it as she 
likes. On the other hand, as long as the husband stops at home and 
behaves like a good boy, he performs his part of the agreement, for 
no work is expected of him. Such marriages take place where parents, 
having only daughters, are sufficiently rich to keep their husbands 
and wish for grandchildren, for the children take the wife's family 
name and belong to her and her family.' 

When a man is absent from home and unavoidable 
circumstances prevent his return to be married, a strange 
marriage by proxy takes place sometimes in some districts 
of the Canton Province ; we are not aware whether it prevails 
in other parts of the empire or not. But the curious thing 
about it is that, instead of a man acting as the proxy, a cock 
does duty for the bridegroom. This fowl is sent by the 
latter to the marriage ceremonies, though it is not even 
necessary that he should be sent by the bridegroom, the 
:presence of the fowl at the wedding is sufficient. 

A girl is but once legally married in China; she rides in 
the bridal chair but once, and only if she is a legal, principal 
wife. Not so the man, he can be married over and over 
again. Only one woman in a man's household holds the 
position of a proper wife ; all the others — and he may take 
as many as he likes — are not principal Avives, or legal ones, 
but secondary wives, or concubines, though their children 
are on an equality with those of the first wife. The women 



MENDICANTS, 365 

who are taken as concubines are sometimes told by their 
husbands that they are to be considered as equal wives with 
the first. 

As to whether Chinese married life is happy or not 
there is this to be said, that neither Chinese men nor 
women know any other kind of married life. One fruitful 
source of trouble is the ploygamy allowed by custom ; 
for quarrels and fights, jealousies and envy, bickerings 
and disputes, are more or less the inheritance of the 
many-wived household ; and law-suits for property left by 
the much-married Chinaman are rendered more complicated 
by the different interests of the four, five, or six women who 
all own the deceased as their late husband. 

Boohs recommended. — Archdeacon Grays 'China,' Vol. 1, Chap. 7, 
(contains most minute particulars about the ceremonials connected with 
marriages in Canton, from which we have largely quoted. Doolittle's 
• Social Life of the Chinese,' details the customs prevalent in Foochow. 
An article in the ' China Mail ' of lOth July, 1890, would appear to be 
written from a Northern standpoint. The marriage customs of the 
Hakkas are noted in one of a series of articles on those people in the 
■ Hongkong Daily Press' for 1861. 

MENDICANTS.— li numbers form any criterion, China 
should be the happy hunting ground of beggars. Mendicancy 
is reduced to a fine art — a science; backed up by the 
charitable tenets of Buddhism, the Chinese beggar, armed 
with an amount of assurance and audacity, proceeds to lay 
siege to a Chinese city, not in a haphazard way, but with 
a systematised organisation, which gives him a hold on the 
shopkeeper, and a vantage ground to attack him with effect 
and perseverance. In some, if not in many, cities, the beggars 
are united together under a head, 'The King of the Beggars,' 
who has complete authority over his subjects. The payment 
of a fixed sum to the King by any shop will secure immunity 
from all visits of his subjects; otherwise the collection of 
their tax of one or two cash will be undertaken with that 
pertinacity and disregard of time and convenience so char- 
acteristic of the Chinese beggar. In Nanking there is a 
royal order of beggars established by Hung-wu, the first 
Emperor of the Ming dynasty. In this city the beggars are 



366 THINGS CHINESE. 

allowed to live in certain arches in the city wall, and 'their 
chief is appointed by the police authorities of the district.' 

Beggars in China may be divided into several classes, 
viz.: — Those who go in strings of three or four; solitary 
beggars, divided into stationary and peripatetic ones; those 
who inflict wounds upon themselves ; those who are suffering 
from sores ; and, last but not least, blind beggars. The 
demarcations between these diff'erent classes are not always 
strongly accentuated, as the one class may merge into the 
other. 

A business like this requires preparation; it is commenced 
by some in early life, the youngsters generally being found 
leading the strings of three or four blind beggars, otherwise 
it is a case of the blind leading the blind, and, all things 
considered, they appear to get on very well. It is not an 
unknown thing, by any means, for mothers to deprive their 
childern of eyesight in order that they may earn their 
living as blind singing girls; and some of the beggars may 
owe their blindness to the same cause. No doubt many 
others have lost their eyesight from disease; for diff'erent 
aff'ections of the eyes are very common in China, where there 
is no proper knowledge of preventives, nor of curatives ; 
the hot sun, bad air, poor living, and the reprehensible 
practice of the barbers of scraping and cleaning the socket 
of the eye must induce blindness in others. Next to blindness, 
open and festering sores and wounds, and deformities of 
limbs, of any and every kind, either form a good capital 
to start on, or, shutting out all other means of gaining a 
livlihood, reduce the suff'erer to beggary of position and 
beggary as a calling. Failing genuine wounds, and armed 
with a knife, a sturdy, impudent vagabond, with strength of 
limb and body and good eyesight, may cut himself in a shop, 
with noisy and wild yells, and thus gather a wide-mouthed 
crowd, Avhich, flocking in and obstructing trade, draws a 
cash or two from the accountant, the Chinese horror of blood 
being also a sufficient ready-drawer of alms. The next shop, 
or one a few doors further on, forms another stage for the 



MENDICANTS. 367 

repetition of the performance. These nuisances, for whom 
one feels no sympathy, but disgust, are fortunately not so 
common as some of the other varieties of the crenius bcffiTar. 

One of the most common is the string-beggar. Almost 
always blind, this class goes about in small bands of three 
or four, sometimes five, mostly females, but one or two males 
are not uncommonly found in the string, each with a slender 
long bamboo, the equivalent of the foreign beggar's stick. 
They make their way, tapping Avith short quick taps, now 
uncertainly feeling with their bamboos, which serve as 
antennoe, lifting their sightless orbs in vain appeals for light, 
raising their faces with that pathetic helplessness, though 
possibly in the exercise of that facial perception with which 
those born blind are accredited (a new sense vouchsafed to 
those deprived of sight which enables them 'by some singular 
insight ' to tell Avhen they are opposite some object, as to its 
dimensions and characteristics, such as height, breadth, &c.). 

Happy are these Bartimeeuses with their sisters, wives, 
and cousins, if some bright-eyed youngster, not smitten with 
the darkness of night in broad mid-day, is found to lead 
their devious course through the crowded streets. Such an 
one is also better able to see the white fan kivai, whose 
pockets are filled with gold, or, who, at least, has not hoarded 
up a store of bad cash to pass ofi" on the beggar tribe as their 
countrymen have. As soon as he appears in sight, tlieir 
monotonous Avhine is exchanged for more vigorous appeals, 
and higher titles of respect follow each other in rapid suc- 
cession in the hope of loosing the purse-strings of the young 
clerk, Avho has instant brevet rank of Taipan, Cap-i-tan 
(Captain), Worship, Honour, Lordship, and everything else 
worth having. 

Let us watch their modus operandi It is a combination 
of street and shop begging — a general business not confined 
to any one branch— each shop is most carefully and 
religiously visited, unless exemption has been purchased by 
a commuted sum paid to the ' Lord of All the Beggars.' 



368 THINGS CHINESE. 

Should the shopkeeper be a good-natured man, a cash or 
two may be flung to the string, who may get it without even 
the trouble of going furtlier than the doorstep, but as often 
as not, if not more often than not, more patient toil is 
necessary to earn even a broken cash. Then the whole strings 
file in, each holding on to the back of the other, and the 
monotonous, whining, singsong appeal begins ; the shopmen 
turn a deaf ear to everything, titles are thrown away, the 
pearls are cast before the swine, who, in this one case, dare 
not turn to rend them, perhaps for fear of vengeance ; though 
also is not one string of beggars for half an hour better than 
half a dozen strings of them in the same time ? And, as long 
as one string is is possession of the place, the others pass 
by. Wearied, sou^e of the band, if not all of them, crouch 
down on the tiled floor, waiting for their opportunity, for it 
is bound to come sooner or later ; and here it is at last, for 
several customers of another sort stop in — purchasers, at 
sound of whom the din and clatter of the besrsrars begin 
with renewed energy, and the surly shopmen, whom no 
amoimt of pity could move, hasten, for fear of losing a good 
customer, U) get rid of the wearisome noise, by tossing a few 
coins into the shallow basket of the mendicants, who renew 
the same tactics at each shop in the street. 

Better when the round happens at meal time, for then 
the beggar will get some broken victuals to fill his empty 
stomach, receiving them in the first place in his shallow 
basket, or in his bowl, which latter Shakyamuni Buddha has 
sanctified, and his numerous priest followers have hallowed 
by the use of conturies. 

The solitary beggar wends his way through the mazy 
street, picking up an odd cash, here and there, from those 
more charitably disposed than the rest, or from those who 
seek immunity from the pest that the beggar is to the whole 
of the respectable world. 

Some select a space in a busy spot, sit down and wait for 
alms, with a written out appeal spread before them, setting 
forth that, natives of other provinces, they are stranded in 



MENDICANTS. 369 

what is, to all intents, almost a strange land to them ; others 
select some quieter spot, but where the stream of passers-by 
is still sufficient to give a hope of an occasional dole from 
unwilling hands, the donors hoping that merit for the deed, 
tliough performed unwillingly, may mitigate the horrors of 
a future hell. One feels a pity for some of these beggars — 
stranded wayfarers; broken-down tradesmen ; ruined gamblers, 
roues, with the punishment of all their profligacy on theni;- 
and, saddest of all, some poor old woman whose undutiful 
son has turned her out cm the street, penniless, and with 
no shelter for her gray hairs, to depend on the uncertain 
charity of her neighbours, who, though virtuous in their 
indignation, give no, or but little, practical proof (jf their 
sorrow, and who are in constant dread lest the old dame 
should give up the ghost on their doorsteps ; harsh words 
and angry rebuflfs, therefore, forbid her sheltering herself 
under what were erewhile friendly roofs ; for would not the 
economy of Chinese social life, as well as its judicial system, 
render the teuder-heaited, who should overstep the limits 
of prudence and on whose premises she might die, liable 
at least, to the expense of a coffin and funeral ? The presence 
of a ghost haunting the house would follow; and, even worse 
still, some trumped-up charge of having caused her death 
might bring the charitably disposed within the clutches of 
the law — a law hard to escape from, with all its con- 
comitants of torture and pre-Ho ward-day prisons. 

It is curious how very polite the chair-coolies are to the 
blind beggars in the street, addressing them as ' Sir,' when 
requesting them to get out of the way — a nice trait in 
Chinese character, due to their innate politeness, and perhaps 
also to self interest, as a want of it might lead to bad 
language. These beggars are not always most polite ; the 
A\riter Avas once knocked, with not a light hand, by a woman 
in the streets of Canton, but there was some excuse for her, 
as she seemed to be crazy. Many of the beggars in Canton 
sleep in an asylum in the east of the City, and go out by day 
to ply their trade. 

Y 



370 THINGS CHINESE. 

MISSIONS. — Ancient Missions.— Tradition points to 
an early proclamation of Christianity in China. The apostle 
ThoTnas has been mentioned as the first missionary to this 
Empire; at all events, it seems that some of the first teachers 
of the new faith must have selected China as their mission 
field. It would be most interesting to have had some 
particulars of this enterprise, but Ave must be content \\\t\\ 
rumours and detached notices in ancient ecclesiastical writings, 
which give but a vague and misty idea of the extent of the 
■work and its results. 

Nestofman Missions. — The first really solid ground tliat 
we have to rest upon is the historical fact of the Nestorians 
having carried on missions in China. A thousand questions 
present themselves to one's mind as to the work done 
by these men, the extent of country they travelled over, 
the numbers that came to China, their uwdiis operandi, the 
success that attended their labours. But to these and many 
others we get answers wljich only whet our appetite for 
more information. 

' The time of the arrival of the Nestorians in China cannot 
be specified certainly, but,' Williams states, ' there are grounds 
for placing it as early as A.D. 505.' One of the most 
interesting of the ancient monuments in Chiaa, while at the 
same time 'the most ancient Christian inscription yet found 
in Asia' is the Nestorian monument. It is 'the only record 
yet found in China itself of the labours of the Nestorians.' It 
was discovered in A.D. 1625 by some workmen in the suburb 
of Ch'ang-an, a district city in Shen-si. In was erected in 
A.D. 781. 

'The contents are threefold : — Doctrinal, Historical, Eulogistic. 
The first part gives a brief outline of the teachings of the religion, 
and of the ways and practices of its ministers ; the second part tells 
of its first entrance into China, and of the patronage extended to it 
for the most part for nearly 150 years by various emperors; in the 
third part, to which, though it be the shortest, the two others are 
introductory, the Christians express, in verse, their praise of God and 
their religion, and also of the emperors whose protection and favour 
they had enjoyed.' 



3IISSI0NS. 371 

From this inscription we learn that a priest, Olopun by 
name, made his way through difficulties and perils from the 
West, guided by the ' azure clouds ' to China, bringing with him 
the 'True Scriptures.' He was favourably received by the 
Emperor in the palace, in A.D. 635 where a portion of the 
scriptures was translated in the library of the palace, and 
approving of the new doctrine, with that eclecticism the 
Chinese are so noted for, the Emperor gave special orders for 
its propagation, and a proclamation issued a few years after 
with regard to it ended with the words: — 'Let it have free 
course throughout the Empire.' A monastery was built 
• sufficient to accommodate twenty-one priests ; ' succeeding 
sovereigns vied with each other in the benefits they 
conferred on the new religion which had the ajgfis 
of imperial patronage thrown over it; it spread through- 
out the then ten provinces of China; 'monasteries filled 
a hundred cities.' Then came a period of persecution, 
for twenty or twenty-five years, from a bigoted Buddhist 
Empress, when another time of prosperity ensued, the 
buildings being restored and more helpers coming from the 
West. Not only did the imperial favour shine on them again, 
but an eminent Buddhist from India appears to have embraced 
Christianity, and ' threw all his wealth and influence into the 
promotion of the Christian cause, manifesting especially an 
extraordinary charity.' Thus we have a summary of the 
history of Nestorian Christians in China for nearly 150 years, 
till A.D. 781. Of its history subsequent to that date there 
is not much to be said ; for sixty years or more it continued : 
•during this time Buddhism made vigorous progress, which 
called forth spirited protests from the literati. The Taouists^ 
in A.D. 84-1, finding their opportunity come, succeeded in 
getting the Emperor to launch a proscription against 
Buddhism, and Buddhist monasteries were destroyed ; this 
persecution also affected the Nestorians, as they were referred 
to in the edict, and the Nestorianism of Si-ngan-fu never 
recovered from the blow. 

Y 2 



372 THINGS CHINESE. 

Marco Polo in the thirteenth century, mentions Nestorian 
churches in China, but it is not thought that these were 
descendants of the former Nestorian Church. It is probable 
that the monument we have already mentioned was buried at 
the time of this great persecution, and so, after a period of 
two hundred years or more, ended an interesting chapter of 
missions — that of the Nestorians in China. Its failure was 
doubtless due to two causes : the one being the reliance on 
the Emperor and men in power ; the other being the absence 
of the Gospel in their presentation of the truth. It is to be 
hoped that future researches may discover further evidence 
of this church at the different periods of its existence in 
China. Some have thought it possible that such may be the 
case, and that remains of this ancient Nestorian Church may 
yet be found — that converts, buried in some isolated region, 
with possibly the ancient translation of the Scriptures made 
by their first missionaries, still in their possession, will be 
come across, as the descendants of the Hebrew community 
were some half a centvuy ago in the interior of China. (See 
Articles on Buddhism and on Jews.) 

Roman Catholic Missions. — We now come to the 
prosecution of missions on a larger scale. 

The founders of Jesuit missions in China were Michael 
!Ruggiero and Matteo Ricci, Avho arrived in this Empire in 
-A.D. 1579 and A.D. 1581 respectively. The latter has been 
described as ' a man of great scientific acquirements, of 
invincible perseverance, of various resource, and of winning 
manners, maintaining, with all these gifts, a single eye to the 
conversion of the Chinese, the bringing the people of all 
ranks to the faith of Christianity.' They found it difficult 
to obtain a footing, but Ricci established himself at Shid- 
hing, the ancient capital of the Canton Province, and worked 
bis way up, till he finally reached the capital, where he died 
in A.D. 1610. He was favourably received by the Emperor 
Wan-li, of the Ming dynasty. He was the author of a number 
of learned works as well as books on Christianity, and left 



3Ilssro^'s. S73 

many converts behind him, the most noted of whom was Hsii 
Kwang-si, a nnmbev of the Han-lin college and an official of 
high rank. One of Hsii's daughters, known as Candida, built 
thirty-nine churches, printed one hundred and thirty books, 
and sent many blind story-tellers, instructed in gospel history, 
out in the streets to tell what they had learned. 

The Church of Rome was wise in her generation in 
sending out at first men of the stamp of Ricci, among whom 
may be named Adam Schaal and Verbiest; it was 
not only Jesuits, but the different Roman Catholic sects, 
such as Franciscans, Dominicans, and others, which 
sent their members to China. 

'The Dynasty of Ming, was drawing near to its close, 

and the Manchus were preparing for the conquest of the Empire. 
Many difficulties and perils encompassed the missionaries, but Schaal 
was able to maintain his position at Peking by his astronomical 
knowledge in correcting the calendar, and by establishing a foundry, 
where he cast cannon to be used against the Manchus. And this 
position he continued to hold when the Empire fell to those invaders. 
He was made head of the Board of Astronomy and Mathematics, and 
was a favourite with the first Manchu sovereign, though he did not 
shrink from remonstrating with him against certain severe measures, 
and urging him rather to justice, forbearance, and mercy. He was 
able to lay, in A.D. 1650, the foundation of a grand church in the 
neighbourhood of the Imperial palace. 

When the second Emperor, known to us as K'ang-hsi — by the 
name of his reign — succeeded to his father at the early age of eight, 
there was trouble during the minority ; but as soon as he took the 
Government into his own hands, he gave his full confidence to the 
missionaries. He was, probably, the most able and enlightened 
sovereign who ever sat on the Chinese throne, and his reign lasted 
sixty-one years- Schaal and Verbiest regulated the calendar and 
cast cannon for him. Regis and several others conducted for him 
the survey of the Empire, which Remusat correctly describes as "the 
most complete geographical work ever executed out of Europe."' 

Disputes, however, arose amongst the Roman Catholic 
missionaries as to the correct term§ to use for God (as to 
what words were to be applied by their Christians to the 
Deity) ; as to the worship of ancestors and Confucius — 
whether it were a mere homage or real worship, and 
whether their converts consequently might engage in it. 
Unable to agree amongst themselves, the dispute had grown 
to such a head that they referred it not only to the Pope but 



374 THINGS CHINESE. 

also to the Emperor of China ; each of whom gave a 
different verdict. The missionaries, of course, were bound 
to obey the Pope, and this setting up of an outside authority 
over that of their own Emperor, incensed the Chinese, and 
the storm which was ijatherini? burst in the next reijrn, 
when in A.D. 1724', an edict was issued against them,- 
prohibiting the propagation of Roman Catholicism, and only 
retaining the feAV missionaries required for scientific purposes 
in Peking ; all the others were required to leave the country. 
Some obeyed the edict, while others remained in secret. 
jMany of the Chinese converts remained firm, notwith- 
standing the persecutions which arose now and then. 
Matters remained in his state for about a century, when in 
A.D. 1842 Christianity was tolerated by treaty. There are 
now numbers of priests and numerous bodies of Roman 
Catholics in the country. When the priests care to use a 
Bible, the translation they employ is Sciid to be that of the 
first Protestant missionary, Dr. Morrison ; for though trans- 
lations of portions have been made by them, yet, like the 
Church of Rome, they seem never to have printed the whole 
Bible and given it to the people ; they have, however, quite 
a literature of their own in Chinese. They do not 
seem to practise any public preaching ; but retain hold of 
the communities of converts already made. In one point 
they are very aggressive, and that is in the baptizing of 
infants, for every one so sprinkled becomes a unit in their 
grand total of Christians. 

The 'Roman Catholic Register,' a paper published a few 

years since in Hongkong, gave the following as the statistics 

of Romish missions in China : — Bishops, 41 ; European 

priests, 664 ; native priests, 559 ; colleges, 34 ; convents, 34 ; 

native converts, 1,092,818. One well-known writer speaks 

thus of their work : — 

' Had they adhered to religious teaching, their converts would 
doubtless have been legion ; but the usual rash meddling with politics 
soon aroused fear of foreign aggression, leading to violent opposition 
and terrible persecution, which have been repeated with every fresh 
scare of undue political influence * ''* '- It is this arrogation 

-of temporal authority which has so incensed the Chinese, and accounts 



MISSIONS. 375 

for much of the hostihty to missionaries and converts of all Christian 
churches and denominations, as the ignorant masses naturally could 
not discriminate between Protestants and Roman Catholics. Hence, 
in the Edict of Toleration, proclaimed in 1886, the Imperial Govern- 
ment deem it necessary to state that men who may embrace 
Christianity do not cease to be Chinese, but, as such, are entitled to all 
protection from their own Government, to which alone they owe 
obedience. The promulgation of this Edict followed immediately on 
the decision of the Pope to send a Papal Legate to the Court of 
Peking, to represent him as the sole foreign power interested in the 
Cliinese Roman Catholics, thereby totally disclaiming all political 
protection from France.' 

Protestants. — The first Protestant ^Lissionavy to China 
was the Rev. Robert M'jrrison, who arrived in A.D. 1807. 
There was such a strong feeling against all Europeans 
at that time that he was unable to preach in public or 
carry on direct evangelistic work; bathe engaged in some 
literary undertakings, which not only redounded to his credit, 
but prepared the way for future labourers. A gigantic 
dictionary of the language and the translation of the whole 
Bible have made his name famous, and it is a marvel how^ 
confined within the foreign factories (as the European 
settlement in Canton was called) in a godown, and assisted 
by a teacher who was in terror of being discovered, this 
wonderful man, nearly single-handed, accomplished such 
tasks. It is true he had a former translation of a part 
of the New Testament which he used as a basis, and he had 
the help of Dr. jMilne in translating part of the old Testament, 
but with all these aids the labour must have been herculean. 
•It was printed from wood blocks and published in 21 volumes 
in 1823.' Thus Protestant missions in China took their start 
on the Bible, and it is to this reliance on the word of God 
at their inception, that their wonderful success is due. Of his- 
other herculean task it has well been said: — 'There is no 
finer monument of human perseverance than the dictionary of 
])r. Morrison.' Unable to penetrate into China, a number of 
missionaries settled in the Straits, and, learning the language, 
were ready, when their opportunity came, to land, fitted for 
work in China. One of them prepared founts of movable type,, 
and these were the precursors of the numerous printing presses^ 



376 THINGS CHINESE. 

which, now that the Chinese have seen their utility, are not 
confined to mission premises, but are used by the natives 
themselves, at the treaty ports, to a limited extent, for the 
production of their own books. In addition to the English 
missionaries, some came to Macao from America. After the 
Nanking treaty of 1842, by which Hongkong was ceded to 
Great Britain and five treaty ports opened, the missionaries 
•came up from the Straits and more arrived from home. Better 
translations of the Bible were made, schools established, dis- 
pensaries opened, and books printed. There were at that time 
only a few Chinese converts all told. Since then more treaty 
ports have been opened, and residence in the interior has been 
possible in many places, till now there are forty different 
societies at work, and a few independent workers unconnected 
with any society. There are 589 men, 391 married women, 
and 316 single ladies, making a total of 1,296; these are 
British, American, German, and Canadian. Of native helpers, 
there are 1.657. There are 522 organized native churches, 
(but this number may be stated as more than a thousand if 
each companv of believers is termed a Church), of which 94- 
are self-supporting, and nearly 50 partially so. These native 
churches are a sufficient answer as to whether missions have 
been a success in China or not, for a Chinese will not pay 
away money for Christianity unless he is convinced of its truth. 
There are also 38 churches which are under a general endow- 
ment scheme, the money being contributed by natives alone : 
besides this there is a group of sixty congregations which are 
to support themselves ; there are other cases also which 
might be included, so that the numbers of self-supporting 
churches given above fall short of the realitv. The amount 
contributed in money is ^36,884.54', but ' no account is taken 
of the value of houses and land given by natives to the 
churches to which they belong.' 

Extra to these are the concomitants of mission work, 
such as schools, with 16,836 pupils, and medical work — of 
hospitals there are 61, of dispensaries 44, with hundreds of 
thousands of patients passing through them annually. There 



MISSIONS. 377 

are 12 religious journals published by missionaries, and hosts 
of books are being annually issued from the mission press — 
not onlv religious ones, but scientific manuals as well, of every 
kind and character. Had Protestant missionaries done nothing 
else in China than prepared and published the books issued 
by them in Chinese : started the schools ; written the books in 
English, containing narratives of their own travels, and 
accounts of the natives, and of their religious customs and 
manners; translated native works; instructed the youth of both 
sexes; and fKinded hospitals and dispensaries — had these, 
we say, been the only things accomplished by Protestant 
missionaries, they would have done a noble work ; but added 
to all these more secular labours is the directly religious 
work of preaching the Gospel, tract and Bible distiibution, 
visiting, gathering together the converts, &c., all of which, 
though less appreciated by the general mercantile community 
of China, have been as signally successful as the other class of 
undertakings. 

The statistics here given are those compiled some years 
since. Wonderful advances are being made each year in 
almost all the various branches of missionary labour. 

Itis in round figures ninety years since Protestant missions 
were started in China, and at first the missionaries were but 
a handful in number, restricted in their operations, and 
confined to a few localities. They have had hard up-hill work, 
prejudice and ignorance opposing them, a difficult language to 
learn — which requires several years of unremitting, diligent 
study, before a sufficient knowledge of it can be acquired for 
general use, — but little sympathy from their fellow countrymen, 
and yet the following statistics will show what has been the 
result of one phase, and one phase alone, of their labours: — in 
1842 there were 6 communicants; in 1853, 350; in 1865, 
2,000; in 1876, 13,035: in 1886, 28,000: in 1889,37,287. 
At the present day there must be in round numbers some 
40,000 communicants, and besides these 100,000 of a 
■Christian community. 



378 THINGS CHINESE. 

' If Christian missions advance in the next thirty-five- 
yeavs in the same ratio as in the past thirty-five years, there 
will be at the end of that time twenty-six millions of 
communicants and a Christian community of one hundred 
million people' — one-fourth of the Chinese nation. 

As to the character of the converts — are the native 
Christians genuine ? Unfortunately some false professors, who- 
liave joined merely for the dollars which they hope to obtain, 
Jiave given a bad name to native Christians amongst certain 
classes of people. It ought to be remembered that it is these 
very hypocrites among them who obtrude themselves on public 
notice, as what these desire is the opportunity of making 
money, and they thus push themselves into prominence for 
that object, while the genuine ones are content to occupy 
the humble position they already fill. The centuries of hea- 
thenism, in which the Chinese have been steeped, must also 
be taken into account in judging of those just come out of it : 
a wild flower transplanted into a garden does not produce the 
beautiful flowers of the cultivated species that grows at its 
side, but care and labour have to be expended, and the skill 
of the gardener exercised, to develope its best characteristics : 
so we can scarcely except one transplanted out of all the 
debasing concomitants of idolatry to be on a par in ail 
respects with (in fact, sometimes they are expected to be 
superior to) those who have been surrounded by centuries 
of Christian influence in our more* highly favoured Western 
lands. But, notwithstanding all this, there are amongst the 
Chinese converts those who compare favourably with any in 
the West. It is not from hearsay that this is said, for the 
author himself has seen such. 

Botihx rcpommcndcd. — 'Christianity in China : Nestorianism, Roman 
Catholicism, Protestantism,' bj- Professor Legge. of Oxford University. 
' Christian Progress in China,' by Rev. A. Foster, b.a. There are numerous 
other works dealing with different sections of the mission field, which are 
good as far as they g'o. Some idea also of what has been done, and is doing, 
may be gathered from a study of ' Records of the Missionary Conference, 
held atShanghai 1890.' Also see ' China Review.' Vol. XVIII., p. 1.52, and 
' The China Mission Hand-Book.' 



MOHAMMEDANS. 379^ 

MOHAMMEDANS,— n\Q introduction of Moham- 
medanism into China is interesting, resulting as it did in the 
settlement of followers of that religion in China, and the eon- 
sequent proselytising, till now there are large communities 
of the followers of the prophet scattered here and there 
throughout the empire. The word proselytising, used above, 
must, however, be taken in a mild sense, for it has not been 
carried on with that vigour which uses compulsion to 
accomplish its objects and makes its converts at the point of 
the sword, The^re is no rapid growth of Mohammedanism in 
China. Content with a foothold in the land, and with the 
achievements of the past, it is now satisfied with the increase 
due to the natural enlargement of its borders from within, 
owing to the growth of the families of its professors. 

Arabia has the honour of introducing Mohammedanism 
into this land, and commerce was the motive force which 
brought the most of the early followers of the false prophet 
to these distant shores. Wos Kassin, supposed to be a 
maternal uncle of Mohammed, is credited with having 
introduced the Moslem faith into China : he came to this 
country in the seventh century with a band of followers. Its 
missionaries arrived at different sea-ports, especially at 
Canton and Hang Chow ; they also travelled in the caravans 
from central Asia. With such a measure of success was the 
propagation of the Islam faith carried on, that large numbers 
of Mohammedans are to be found in China, especially in the 
Northern and Western provinces where the inhabitants of 
whole villages are followers of the Arabian prophet; there are 
200,000 in Peking. In one of the large cities of Szchuen 
there are 80,000. In Yunnan there are said to be between 
three and four millions. In Kansuh they are estimated as 
8,350,000 in number and in Shensi as 3,500,000. These three 
provinces contain nine-tenths of the whole Mohammedan 
population of China, while in some other places they form 
one-third of the population ; it is estimated that there are 
more than 10,000.000 North of the Yang-tsz-kiang ; there 
are not so many in the South. 'According to an official 



380 THINGS CHINESE. 

estimate there are from twenty to twenty-five millions of 
Moslems in China.' There are mosques in many of the 
■cities; Canton boasts of four, t^A'o of whicli were built 
by Wos Kassin. This apostle was buried, after a residence 
of fifteen years in China, outside the Great North Gate of 
Canton. One of the two pagodas in Canton, different rather 
in style to the ordinary pagoda, was erected in connection 
with one of these mosques, in order that the inuezzins might 
call the faithful to prayers from it. The followers of this 
religion would appear, in this distant land of their adoption 
to have held strictly to the tenets of their faith, such as, 
circumcision, alms deeds, observance of the feast of Ramadan, 
and prayers in the mosque. In all their mosques is to be 
found a tablet on which is inscribed in letters of gold; 
^ May the Emperor reign ten thousand years,' the penalty of 
the recognition of tlieir faith by their sovereign ; Confucian. 
Buddhist, and Tnouist temples, if of any size, all having 
the same reminder of the homage due to, and worship 
demanded by, the Son of Heaven. His subjects may Avorship 
whom they choose, but, whether they choose or not, adoration 
must be paid to him except in the case of Christians, who 
will not bend the knee nor offer the incense of worship to 
any but the one living and true God. 

A large literature has been bought into existence by 
the Mohammedans. The author had in his possession a 
well-got-up work published under Imperial auspices ; the 
title-page had two dragons encircling the name of the book — 
this being the sign of the imprimatur of the sanction, or 
approval, of the Emperor. 

There have been several rebellions of considerable 
■magnitude by the Mohammedans against the Government, 
of which may be mentioned that of A.D. 1863, in the North 
of China, and that in Yunnan, lasting for many years. 

Boohs recontmcndcd. — Williams's 'Middle Kingdoni,' Vol. II, pp. 
268-271, Gray's ' China,' Vol. I, pp. 187-142. Au article by Rev. H. V. 
Noyos in the ' Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal,' Vol. XX. pp. 
10-18 and 68-72. For an account of the literature published by them, 
see 'Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal,' Vol. XXII, pp. 263, 354, 



MONGOLS, 381 

377, 401. The larger lialf of tlie Second Volume of llocliei-'s * La Province 
Cliinoise dii Yiin-nan ' is taken np with a narrative of tlie great Mohani- 
irifdau rebellion in that i)rovince in 185o-lS73. 

MONGOLS. — The Mongols are another of those nomadic 
races bordering China, who have forced themselves into 
relationships with that Empire. The Huns or Hwing-noo 
were the ancestors of the present Mongols. As Attila, with 
his hordes of savage Huns, was styled the ' Scourge of God,' 
and proved to be veritably the ' Terror of the West ' in the 
fifth century : so, early during the time of the Han dynasty 
(B.C. 202 to A.D. 190), the Hwing-noo proved entitled to a 
similar appellation as regards the China of that period, foj. 
they ofttimes became ' virtual masters of the Empire.' 

The Heanbi, another Mongolic tribe, made themselves 
famous in Chinese history during the Han dynasty for about 
a hundred years. They also proved an annoyance to 
succeeding dynasties, becoming a formidable State, ranging 
over northern China and engulfing parts of it. 

A number of these Mongols, as well probably as some 
of the Huns and other Mongolic tribes, were settled in North 
China ; and so not only were there foes without, but foes 
within ; and in preparation for a war with the external foes, 
the Emperor ordered a Chinese ' St. Bartholomew's Day ' of 
all the nomadic tribes within his borders, so that 200,000 
families were slain. To prevent them turning traitors many 
Chinese also suffered in the indiscriminate slaughter ; but, 
even after such treatment, Tibetan and Hunnish families 
collected in China, and harsh laws were enacted against 
them, which drove large numbers of them out. Before that, 
Hienbi Mongols had returned to China, and they continued 
to do so afterwards. There was a Hunnish Kingdom, one 
of the most powerful of the many rival ones into which China 
was divided, in A.D. 435. 

Mongols, under the name of Too-kile, assisted the first 
Emperor of the T"'ang dynasty to gain the throne of China. 
These same Turks, as they Avere called, plundered the north- 
western and northern borders of China during the whole of 
the T'ang dynasty. 



382 THINGS CHINESE. 

The Khitnns, another Mongolic tribe originally, have 
also made for themselves a chapter in Chinese history. 
Harrying the frontiers and plundering the country ; defeated 
by the Chinese, who employed 1,800,000 men to build a 
great wall to protect the Empire from their ravages in the 
time of the Chi dynasty ; eclipsed by the so-called Turks, 
they rose, to be again defeated. After acknowledging the 
supremacy of the Chinese, they again fought with them, and 
threatened the North of China after the T'ang dynasty had 
crippled its strength in its exhausting and foolish war against 
ancient Corea ; two expeditions were sent against them, which 
proved ineffectual, and it was found impossible to oust them 
from the new territories they had acquired. It is impossible, 
however, to follow the fortunes of the Khitans through all 
the intricacies of the history of Chinese dealings with their 
nomadic neighbours. Suffice it to say, that eventually, in 
A.D. 926, the Khitans, after Eastern Mongolia had been 
formed into a kingdom, began to lay the foundations of that 
Empire under Abdoji ' one of the great conquerors of 
mankind.' Under his successors they assumed the Imperial 
power as the Liao, or Iron dynasty, overthrowing the Tsin 
Emperor. They carried on incessant wars with the Sung, 
and reigned over the country north of the Yellow River, 
their dominion extending as far north as the Sono-ari and 
Hoorha rivers. The Khitans are said to have had a curious 
custom, that of drinking human blood, which the husbands 
drank from the living bodies of their wives by cutting a 
small slit in the wife's back. Their higher civilisation in 
other matters would almost appear to throw some doubt on 
this strange propensity, as they were painters, and had, at 
the time when they entered China, a literature comprising 
thousands of volumes, including. medical works ; they were 
hospitable, and fond of drink. It may be here proper to 
remark, that ' Huns,' ' Turks,' and ' Mongols ' ' differ only as 
the Han, T'ang, and Sung of China differ. They are but 
dynastic titles of the same people.' They were finally driven 
out of Northern China by the help of the ancestors of the 



MONGOLS. 383 

present Manclius, who succeeded them as the Kin dynasty, 
after a reign by the Liao dynasty of 2i0 years. It is 
interesting to note that Peking was first made a capital 
during their time. 

We next find the Kins, as well as the native Chinese 
dynasty in the south, swept off their thrones by the Mongols. 
The name, Kin, is said by Ross to mean 'silver.' Genghis 
Khan had gathered together the numerous bands 'of restless 
cavalry on the north of Shamo and the west of the Hinganlin.' 
Defeated tribes swelled his numbers, and he entered on a 
career of conquest; his sons completed his work as far as 
China was concerned, the Yuen dynasty, as it was called, 
reigning over the whole of China for a period of eighty-eight 
years, until the Ming, a native dynasty, was founded on the 
ruins of the destroyed and hated power of the Mongols (See 
Article on Chinese History). 

MoxGOLS, Characteristics and Customs or. — The 
distinguishing features of the Mongols are described, by the 
late celebrated Russian traveller. Col. Prejevalsky, as 'a broad 
flat face, with high cheek-bones, wide nostrils, small narrow 
eyes, large prominent ears, coarse black hair, scanty whiskers 
and beard, a dark sunburnt complexion, and lastly, a stout 
thick-set figure, rather above the average height.' The 
Chinese face is "cast in' a 'more regular mould.' The men 
shave their heads like the Chinese, but the Avomen plait their 
liair 'in two braids decorated with ribbons, strings of coral, 
or glass beads, which hang down on either side of the bosom.' 
The Mongols live in felt huts or tents, and are very dirty, 
never washing their bodies and faces, and their hands but 
seldom. They drink great quantities of tea and 'milk 
prepared in various ways, either as butter-curds, whey, or 
kumiss,' and are much addicted to drunkenness. Mutton is 
eaten in great quantities. 'Their only occupation and source 
of Avealth is cattle-breeding, and their riches are counted by 
the number ot their live-stock.' The Mongols are very fond of 
their animals, and lay themselves out completely for them, 
being very considerate of them ; their cattle, &c , are bartered 



384 THINGS CHINESE. 

for manufactuietl goods. They are very lazy, never walking, 
always riding on horseback, and are great cowards, but 
are fond of hunting, and kind and simple-minded. 'A 
Mongol can only have one lawful wife, but he can keep 
concubines,' the children of the latter, 'are illegitimate, and 
liave no share in the inheritance.' ' Bribery and corruption 
are as prevalent as in China.' 'Religious services are 
performed in Tibetan.' 

Boolis refcmmcHdcd. — Col. Prejevalsky's ' Mongolia.' The late Rev. 
•J. Gilmoiir's ' Amon<r the Mongols.' For a 'depositor}" of all available 
Mongol lore' on their history, &c., there are the huge volumes of Howorth's 
' Historj' of the Mongols.' 

MONGOL LANGUAGE.- -The Mongolian and Chinese 
languages are quite distinct and not related : Chinese is 
monosyllabic to a great extent, Mongolian abounds in Avords 
of several syllables ; Chinese is non-alphabetic, Mongolian 
alphabetic. Mongolian is said to be an easier language to 
acquire than Chinese, especially is this the case Avith the 
written language. Gutterals and aspirates are largely used, 
'so much so that their speech seems mostly gasping and 
sputtering.' One very curious feature in the language is the 
facility with which terminations are added to the verb, and 
by this agglutinative process a great variety of meaning is 
introduced without the need of using additional words ; and 
it is not surprising to find from the ' disproportionately large 
part occupied by the verb ' in the language that ' sentences 
are run out to an indefinite length, consisting of an indefinite 
number of participial clauses strung together like the 
links of a chain.' The Mongol language ' is rich in words 
and several forms and dialects, which, hoAvever, are not 
very distinct, except as between Northern and Southern 
Mongolian, Avhere the difference is strongly marked,' where 
' even the construction of the sentence changes ' : but, not- 
withstanding all, it seems a very rare thing for Mongols from 
different parts of the country not to understand each other, 
thus forming a sharp contrast to the Chinese speaking 
natives. There is a great difference betAveen the colloquial 
and Avritten language, and the natives appear to find it 



MONGOL LANGUAGE. 385 

well-nigh impossible to write the language as it is spoken. 
A line of Mongolian writing has been compared to a knotted 
cord; the people themselves say of it that it is like 'a stream 
of water poured out from a jug. They read from left to 
right in vertical columns : — 

' There are a good many printed books, the Chinese Government 
having appointed a special commission, at the end of last century, to 
translate into Mongol, historical, educational, and religious works.' 
' But it may be remarked, in passin.ij, that outside of the sacred books 
and Buddhist liturgies, there is very little in the shape of literature 
to be found in the Monirolian language. The book collector may 
find numerous manuscript copies of parts of Buddhist scriptures, 
some histories of famous monks, and a few tales written with the 
purpose of enforcing Buddhist doctrines, but secular writings are very 
hard to find, religion having taken such entire possession of the 
Mongolian mind that it is thought a waste of time to write and copy 
anything that has not a religious value.' ' There are schools at 
Peking and Kalgan for teaching the language, and an almanac and 
some books are from time to time printed in it. The learned classes 
are the princes, nobles and lamas, the latter also learning Tibetan, 
the princes and nobles, Mongol and Manchu. The common people 
are in general illiterate.' 

There are three styles of the written language : first, that 
of the sacred books, 'being that in which the translations of 
the Buddhist scriptures are made,' stiff in its style and ren- 
dering foreign idioms literally ; second, the documentary 
style characterised by ' formality and the use of uncommon 
words'; and, lastly, the correspondence style in which letters 
and business documents are written. The last is pure Mongol 
and nearer to the colloquial than either of the other styles. 

The Mongols appears first to have borrowed the charac- 
ters used by the Uighur Turks of Kashgaria, and this style 
of writing was commonly used by Chinghiz Khan and his 
immediate successors. The Uighur character was borrowed 
from the old Syriac which was probably brought into Eastern 
Turkestan by the Nestorian clergy. This Syro-Uighur alpha- 
bet was modified in the latter part of the thirteenth century 
in Kublai Khan's time to better adapt it for the Mongol 
language. Continuous lines connecting the letters vertically 
were introduced, but the system was not completed. After 
this, a square character was invented instead of the Uighur. 

z 



386 THINGS CHINESE. 

This square character was 'founded on a Tibetan modifica- 
tion of the Devanagari.' This was not acceptable, though 
Kublai Khan tried to 'force it into use.' Finally, after a 
reversion to the ' Uighuresque characters ' with some addi- 
tions, this form was, in A.D. 1307-1311, brought to perfec- 
tion. 'This is substantially the character still in use among 
the Mongols, though some additions have been since made to 
it.' The Manchu alphabet, again, was modelled upon this 
Mongol one. 'Roughly speaking, there is about as much 
difference between the Mongolian and Manchu character as 
there is between French and English writing.' But, though 
very similar in their written forms, the Manchu and Mongo- 
lian languages in their spoken forms are quite diiferent. 

Boohs recommended. — The best books for learning Mongol appear to 
be in Russian. For a general account of the Mongolian language see 'Ap- 
pendix No. 3 in a book entitled ' James Gilmour of Mongolia : His Diaries. 
Letters, and Reports,' by R. Lovett, M.A. 

MOURNING. — The Chinese are very punctilious in 
their observance of mourning. At the funeral the mourners 
are clothed in coarse sackcloth, while the sons and nearest 
of kin wear caps of the same. Mourning, especially deep 
mourning, is not graceful in the East. No Chinese widow 
looks well in her Aveeds ; and to enhance the un sightliness of 
the mourning costume, the finger-nails are not cut, and the 
mourner goes unshaven and unshorn for seven weeks. No 
marriages, of course, take place in the family, nor can its 
members go to theatres. The two, large, red, globular 
lanterns hung up outside the front door are changed for 
white ones ; the pieces of red paper pasted over the door are 
replaced by white strips. The widow and children sit on the 
ground for seven days, and sleep on mats on the floor near 
the coffin ; food is not cooked, the friends and neighbours 
supplying Avhat is required ; chopsticks are not allowed to be 
used, but the deep sorrow, supposed to be felt, is symbolised 
by the employment of the hands in eating, and needles and 
knives must be eschewed as well. After the deepest mourning 
of sackcloth is discarded, white is worn as deep mourning — 
white shoes, white robes, a white button on the cap, and white 



MOURNING. 387 

cord braided into the queue. Blue is used as lighter 
mourning, it must not, however, be supposed that a simple 
bluejacket implies, that anyone has been bereaved of friends, 
as a great majority of the Chinese would then be in mourning 
•every day of their lives ; but a blue knob on the top of the 
cap instead of a black or red one, also a blue cord braided 
into the end of the queue are other signs of it, as well as 
certain styles of blue shoes. In the North of China, white is 
the only mourning used. There are indications also on the 
visiting cards to show mourning. The whole nation goes 
into mourning, to a certain extent, on the death of the 
sovereign : no one is allowed to shave for 100 days after it 
is proclaimed ; the poor barbers must have a sad time of it. 
The discomfort and distress are minimised by the natives 
■getting a clean shave before the decree enforcing it is 
promulgated. The writer chanced to be in Shanghai on the 
death of the Emperor T'ung-chi, and it was curious to see all 
the wheel-barrows come out with blue cloths on their seats 
(for wheel-barrows are the cabs of the natives of Shanghai) 
instead of the red ones. 

A Chinese wears mourning for his superiors and equals 
in relationship ; he does not require to put it on for his wife, 
but an affectionate husband, as the author himself has seen, 
will sometimes put on white at his wife's funeral, though it 
is not incumbent on him to do so, or even to attend the 
corpse to the grave ; in the same way, some abstain from red 
cord in the queue and bright colours, though it is not 
obligatory to do so. As some who profess horrible creeds are 
often better than their beliefs, so there are Chinese who are 
better than their heartless ceremonials, which take no, or but 
little, account of women or children. 

A period of seven times seven days is observed in 
mourning, funeral rites being performed on each seventh day 
up till the forty-ninth. 

There are five degrees of mourning, as follows : — for 
parents ; for grandparents and great-grand-parents ; for 

z 2 



388 THINGS CHINESE. 

brothers, sisters, &c.; for uncles, aunts, &c.; and for distant 
relatives in line of descent or ascent. 

In the first, sackcloth without hem or border ; in the 
second, sackcloth with hem or border ; in the third, fourth, 
and fifth, pieces of sackcloth are placed on certain parts of 
the dress. When sackcloth is worn, after the third interval 
of seven days is over, the mourners can cast it off, and then 
wear plain colours, such as white, gray, black, and blue. 
For a parent, the period of mourning is nominally three 
years, but really twenty-seven months, and during all this 
time no silk can be worn ; during these twenty-seven months, 
officials have to resign their appointments, and retire from 
public life. There is an immense amount of ceremonial 
connected with Chinese mourning, and diff"erent duties to be 
performed, certain of them devolving on the chief mourner,, 
such as carrying a certain mourning staff in the procession. 
The whole subject is one that much might be written upon, 
as there are many curious customs connected with deaths- 
such, for example, as the chief mourner, supported on each 
side and accompanied by friends, going out with a musician 
playing a discordant flageolet, till they come to a well or 
pool, when a cash or two is flung into the water, of which 
some is dipped up in a basin they have brought with them, 
taken home, and the corpse washed in it ; while lanterns with 
blue characters on them are hung up at the front door instead 
of the usual red ones with black characters ; and the orna- 
nrent over the front door ( a curious shaped sort of tablet 
suspended over the doors of officials, and at weddings and 
funerals ) is of white paper pasted on a framework of bamboo, 

A shed constructed of bamboo and mats, or a roof made 
of the same materials, is put up over the street in front of 
the house in which the death has taken place ; a paper stork 
is erected on the top of bamboo poles, rising to the height 
of twenty or thirty- feet above the street — for it is believed 
that the spirits take their flight into the other world on such 
birds, and a large paper, some feet in length and breadth, 
is posted up on the outside wall of the house, giving notice 



MOURNING. 389 

of the spirit's departure and the route to be taken, and 
warning others from coming across the road, in case any 
disaster shoukl happen to them. Funeral cards are sent out 
by the family, giving intimation of the death to friends. 
These are large documents, and amongst other matters, they 
contain the date of birth and death of the deceased and a list 
of the children ; a slip is enclosed with them, giving the date 
when the reception of friends to worship the spirit of the 
departed one will taken place. A small present of money 
( perhaps a sum of fifty cents, that being a very common 
amount ) is sent to the bereaved family to purchase candles, 
joss-paper, and incense for the ceremonies. As an instance 
of what may take place, we quote from a Chinese novel the 
directions given by the Astrologer for the funeral rites of an 
official's wife : — 

' ( This Astrologer ) decided that the coffin should remain in the 
house for seven times seven days, that is forty-nine days ; that after 
the third day, the mourning rites should be begun and the formal 
cards should be distributed ; that all that was to be done during these 
forty -nine days was to invite one hundred and eight Buddhist bonzes 
to perform, in the Main Hall, the High Confession Mass, in order to 
ford the souls of the departed relatives across the abyss of suffering, 
and afterwards to transmute the spirit (of Mrs. Ch'in) ; that, in addition, 
an altar should be erected in the Tower of Heavenly Fragrance, where 
nine times nine virtuous Taoist priests should, for nineteen days, offer 
up prayers for absolution from punishment, and purification from 
retribution. That after these services, the tablet should be moved 
into the Garden of Concentrated Fragance, and that in the presence 
of the tablet, fifteen additional eminent bonzes and fifteen renowned 
Taoist priests should confront the altar and perform meritorious deeds 
every seven days.' 

Further on we have, in the same novel, the following : — 

' This day was the thirty-fifth day, the very day of the fifth 
seven, and the whole company of bonzes had just ( commenced the 
services ) for unclosing the earth, and breaking Hell open ; for sending 
a light to show the way to the departed spirit for its being admitted 
to an audience by the King of Hell ; for ai'resting all the malicious 
devils, as well as for soliciting the soul-saving Buddha to open the 
golden bridge and to head the way with streamers. The Taoist 
priests were engaged in reverently reading the prayers ; in wor- 
shipping the Three Pure Ones and in prostrating themselves before 
the Gemmy Lord. The disciples of abstraction were burning incense, 
in order to release the hungered spirits, and were reading the Water 
Regrets Manual. There was also a company of twelve nuns, of 
tender years, got up in embroidered dresses, and wearing red shoes. 



390 THINGS CHINESE. 

who stood before the coffin, silently reading all the incantations for 
the reception of the spirit (from the lower regions,) with the result 
that the utmost bustle and stir prevailed.' 

In this connection it may be interesting to give au 
account of a Chinese funeral procession, and we select for 
that purpose a tolerably full description of that of the late 
Mr. T'ong King-sing, taken from the "North China Daily 

News': — 

'At the head of the procession were two gigantic paper figures, 
one in black and the other in red. The first represented a fierce- 
looking soldier, and the other a mild-looking minister of state ; the 
functions of these being to scare away any malignant spirits that 
might be inclined to trouble the spirit of the deceased. Next came 
five men on ponies, in single file, follov/ed by sixty, dirty, young 
ragamuffins bearing boards containing the names of the offices and titles 
of the deceased. Then came two flags ; four more men dressed in blue 
on ponies, followed by an umbrella, thirteen soldiers carrying many 
coloured banners, twenty-four men on foot bearing weapons with 
pewter heads and wooden handles, two men blowing clarions, a man- 
darin on a pony, four soldiers with banners, twenty-three soldiers 
with bayonets fixed, behind them being a three flounced umbrella and 
mandarin runners. Next came ten musicians very well dressed, and 
another umbrella and attendants. A green chair, borne by eight 
carriers, with a mourner on each side, and two handsome scrolls 
immediately preceded the Taotai's band, who were followed by thirty 
well-dressed soldiers, a number of tables on which were a roasted 
pig, a skinned goat, fruit, and pewter wine-bottles, while some paper 
tables had on them gold and silver mock sycee, scrolls, and represen- 
tations of Chin Shan and Yin Shan — the Gold and Silver mountains, — 
all these latter intended to be burnt. The handsomest part of the 
procession was the " myriad name umbrellas," of which there were 
twenty-four, presented by the people whose names appeared in velvet 
characters on the lower flounces, while round the upper ones were 
quotations from the classics. These umbrellas were very handsome 
and were mostly of silk and in many colours. Then there we're two 
more chairs, some Taoist and Buddhist priests, satin scrolls, and a chair 
containing the picture of the deceased, on either side of the chair 
being a mourner. Next came some Buddhist priests playing on flutes, 
and then behind them boys carrying flowers on stands. A hundred 
of the friends of the deceased in their official robes followed, each 
bearing a lighted joss-stick. Many handsome scrolls succeeded and 
then came the Town Band, four mourners, the sons of the deceased, 
gongs, and images. The catafalque was carried by thirty-two bearers,, 
the pole which ran through it having the head and tail of a dragon, 
a token of Imperial favour, and the end of the procession was brought 
up by hundreds of Chinese in carriages and chairs and on foot.' 

What value the Chinese attach to such matters may 

be judged by the saying that, ' the most important thing in 



Ufi 



'e is to get buried well.' 



MUSIC. 391 

No one who has not been married is entitled to a funeral 
procession. The coffin in such a case would simply be carried 
to the grave without all the concomitants of music, and all the 
chairs and open stands, lanterns, insignia, et hoc genus ornne, 
which brought together into a trailing picturesque confusioa 
form that delight of the Chinese, a procession. When 
children die they are not always coffined, but the bodies are 
often put into a box. Amongst the Cantonese this may, 
perhaps, be done in eight cases out of ten, and the corpses of 
infants which are seen floating in rivers and pools and lying 
by the wayside or on the hill slopes are many of them those 
which are thus indecently cast aside without heathen burial, 
though some of them are the bodies which have been exposed 
or killed outright by their inhuman parents. 

BooliK recommended. — Archdeacon Graj-'s 'China,' for Cantonese 
customs ; Eev. J. Doolittle's • Social Customs of the Chinese ' for those at 
Foochow ; and one or two articles in ' The Hongkong Daily Press,' for 
1861, for some account of those of the Hakkas. Also see the ' Li-Ki' as to 
tlie ancient mourning customs on which the modern ones are based, modi- 
tied by local usages and practice. ' The China Review,' Vol. XVII., pp. 47 
and 48, contains a list of Days of Official Mourning in China. For a short 
account of some of the funei-al rites performed once every seven days until 
the forty-ninth day, see ' China Review,' Vol. XVII., p. 38. 

MUSIC— 

'Music in China has undoubtedly been known since the remotest 
antiquity. It is said to have been invented by the Emperor Fu-hsi 
(B.C. 2852). " * It is, say the Chinese, the essence of the 

harmony existing between heaven, earth, and man. *'' ''■■' '■■' The 
first invaders of China certainly brought with them certain notions 
of music. The Aborigines themselves had also some kind of musical 
system which their conquerors admired and probably mixed with 
their own.' 

Different systems seem to have been evolved by different 
emperors and were differently styled, but it assumed its 
' characteristic form ' with the Emperor Huang-ti (B.C. 2697 
when, amidst other innovations, names were given to the 
sounds, and one fixed upon as a base note. Theoretically,, 
music holds a position of paramount importance in the good 
government of a State. Either this ancient music was of 
an extraordinary character — for Confucius was so ravished 
on hearing a piece, composed by the great Shun 1,600 years 



392 THINGS CHINESE. 

before his time, that he did not taste meat for three years — or 
the Chinese were sensitively responsive to certain combina- 
tions of sounds, in a manner unknown to Europeans. Un- 
fortunately we have no means of testing which is true, for 
the knowledge of this ancient music is lost. If the descrip- 
tions of it are true to the reality, no one who has heard 
Chinese music of the present day will have any hesitation in 
accepting the statement of its being unknown now, for it has 
been remarked, in a comic strain, that the music of the 
Chinese is '" deliciously horrible," like cats trying to sing 
bass with sore throats.' Some most abstruse theories are all 
that remain for us. At the great destruction of books, those 
on music, as well as musical instruments, shared 'the same 
fate as every object which could give rise to any remem- 
brance of past times.' 

Great efforts were made to resuscitate the lost art ; some 
of the books and instruments were recovered from their hid- 
ing places ; but the times were not favourable for the culti- 
vation of peaceful arts; the memory of the great music-master, 
in whose family the office had been hereditary, was not 
sufficient to bridge over the chasm which the great catas- 
trophe had occasioned ; different authors disagreed in their 
theories, and a confusion of the different systems has result- 
ed. Two Emperors of the present dynasty, Kang-hsi and 
Kien-lung, used their best efforts *' to bring music back to its 
old splendour,' but without much success. 

* Modern music really dates from the T'ang dynasty 
( A.D. 600).' Mr. Van Aalst divides Chinese music into two 
kinds ; ' ritual or sacred music, which is passably sweet, and 
generally of a minor character ; and the theatrical or popular 
music. * * * The present Chinese theoretically admit 
seven sounds in the scale, but practically they only use five, 
and that as well in ritual music as in popular tunes.' 
Chinese music cannot be exactly represented on our Western 
musical instruments, as the intervals between the notes are 
not the same as ours. 



MUSIC. 393 

Ritual music is used in the acts of worship in which 
the Emperor either takes part himself or is represented by 
a deputy, such as the worship of Heaven and Earth, of 
Ancestors, of the Sun and Moon, «&;c., and of Confucius. 
The popular music includes all other kinds, and there are 
not a few. Not a procession of any importance winds its 
meandering course through the busy narrow lanes, that do 
duty for streets in a great part of China, but has bands of 
musicians, sometimes scores of bands, having small drums 
and clashing cymbals, &c. That music should take a pro- 
minent part in a marriage is naturally to be expected, but it 
takes an equally prominent part in funerals, the poorest of 
which has at least one musician, and the better ones more, 
playing a dirge on shrill clarionets — in the latter case also 
bands of performers on instruments are seen as well. No 
officer of a high grade proceeds on an official visit without 
the deep-toned boom of the sonorous gong proclaiming, by 
the number of beats, the rank of the ' great man,' while its 
other uses are not a few. In evening worship on board ship, 
it and the drum provide the music. 

Much of the attraction of the theatre to the natives 
consists in the music and singing — attractive to the native, 
but ear-splitting and headache-producing to the foreigner. 
The singing on the stage 'is not unfrequently in the 
*' recitative " style, and the way the orchestra accompanies, 
in broken, sudden chords, or in long notes, bears a striking 
resemblance to our European recitative.' 

Ballad singing is much appreciated ; blind men play one 
species of guitar, while blind singing girls accompany 
themselves on another. The courtesans are given a musical 
education according to Chinese ideas; and scarcely a boy or 
coolie but delights in singing to his heart's content from a 
book of songs of one kind or another, or screeches a song in 
imitation of some theatrical character. Grass-cutters and 
field labourers beguile the time by singing responsive songs, 
the men and boys singing one verse and the girls the other. 



394 THINGS CHINESE. 

The Buddhist priests chant in their services ; while the 
Taoists also chime their instruments and singr their litursries. 
There is quite a variety of" musical instruments in use, 
some being confined to the Chinese sacred music in their 
ritual ceremonies, and other to popular music. One of the 
most ancient is called the 'stone chimes,' consisting of a 
series of sonorous stones of varying thickness, hung in 
a frame. There is also the ' single sonorous stone ' and 
a marble flute. This employment of stone for musical 
instruments is peculiar to China. A ' conch,' a large shell, 
is used by soldiers, watchmen, and bands of pirates. 

Bells of diflerent shapes — square and round, and of all 
weights, from over fifty tons downwards — -are much used, 
every temple of any size having one large one at least, as well 
a,s a large drum. Amongst curious ancient Chinese musical 
instruments may be noted the chimes of small bells suspended 
in a framework ; and the chimes of gongs, ten in a frame ; 
while another outre object is a wooden mortar struck with a 
wooden hammer. The cymbals in use are said to have come 
originally from India. 

Some of the stringed instruments are also most ancient : 
there are a number of lutes, guitars, and violins, some of the 
latter with the bow passing between the strings. 

Of wind instruments, there are flutes and clarionets, or 
flageolets. 

Wooden instruments are also made : one of the most 

common is the wooden fish, it is shaped somewhat like a 

skull, and hollowed out ; it is struck with a piece of wood,. 

and is much used by priests. Of drums there are not a few 

varieties. 

' The sheng is one of the most important of Chinese musical 
instruments. * ''■- ''■■' No other instrument is nearly so perfect, 
either for sweetness of tone or delicacy of construction. The principles 
embodied in it are substantially the same as those of our grand 
organs. Indeed, according to various writers, the introduction of the 
shSng into Europe led to the invention of the accordion and the 
harmonium. Kratzenstein, an organ-builder of St. Petersburg, having 
become the possessor of a sheng, conceived the idea of applying the 
principle to organ stops.' 



MUSIC. 39r> 

Chinese music as loukecl upon from a foreign standpoint 
has been thus described : — 

'The intervals of the Chinese scale not being tempered, some of 
the notes sound to foreign ears utterly false and discordant. The 
instruments not being constructed with the rigorous precision which 
characterises our European instruments, there is no exact justness of 
intonation, and the Chinese must content themselves with an a pen 
prH. The melodies being always in unison, always in the same key, 
always equally loud and unchangeable in movement, they cannot 
fail to appear wearisome and monotonous in comparison with our 
complicated melodies. Chinese melodies are never definitely major 
nor minor ; they are constantly floating between the two, and the 
natural result is that they lack the vigour, the majesty, the tender 
lamentations of our minor mode ; and the charming effects resulting 
from the alternation of the two modes.' 'The Chinese have, 
theoretically, a perfect scale and a fairly good notation ; there is, 
however, one great lack in their system, they have no satisfactory 
method of e.Kpressing time. * '■- * This is all the more strange, 
seeing that in practice they are strict timists.' 

Professor C. J. Knott, D.Sc, F.R.S., thus writes :— 

' The Chinese musical school, as it is developed in Japan, is 
peculiar in the high pitch in which the leading female voice chants 
the libretto. There is melody in the airs and truthfulness in the 
instrumental (?/;.svwi^/i? of fiddles, guitars, and flutes. But there is no 
harmony in our sense of the term. Each piece is very long and 
wearisome in its apparently endless repetitions.' 

The Chinese do not appreciate our music any more than 
we do theirs. A Chinese standinsr listeninof to the military 
band playing in Hongkong was asked his opinion of it, and 
he said the music lacked harmony. That they fully appre- 
ciate their own music needs but a glance at the crowd round 
a Chinese band performing; their writings equally show 
this appreciation, for example, take the following from 
' Gems of Chinese Literature': — 

' Softly, as the murmur of whispered words ; now loud and soft 
together, like the patter of pearls and pearlets dropping upon a marble 
dish. Or liquid, like the warbling of the mango-bird in the bush; 
trickling like the streamlet on its downward course. And then, like 
the torrent, stilled by the grip of frost, so for a moment was the music 
lulled, in a passion too deep for words.' 

Who will say after that, that the Chinese have no soul 
for music ? 

Books recommended : — ' Chinese Music,' by .J. A. A''an .^alst — published 
as No. 6 of the 'Special Series' of the publications of the Imperial 
Maritime Customs, ISS-t — 'is a most interesting: and learned monograph on 



396 THINGS CHINESE. 

the subject. See ' China lleview' for August, 18.S2, on the Sfieng, by F. \V. 
Eastlake ; also see same mai,'azine, Vols. I. and II., for a series of articles 
(in 'The Theory of Chinese Music,' hy Rev. E. Faber, Th.D. Two articles 
in 'The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal' contain some very 
interesting- particulars, they arfj ' Cliinese Music and its Relation to our 
Native Services,' by Rev. W. E. Soothill, A'ol XXI., p. 221, and ' Chinese 
:\Iusic,' by Mrs. Timothy Richards, Vol. XXI., p. 30.j. 

NAMES. — The clifFerent names that a Chinese has are 
a perfect puzzle to a European; for nearly every Chinese has 
several names. He keeps his surname through life, of course, 
as we do, but at every memorable event in his life, such as 
first going to school, getting married, &c., he takes another 
name. It must not therefore be supposed that because a 
native gives you different names for himself he is attempting 
to palm himself off as someone else, though this system of a 
plurality of names offers facilites to one who is inclined to be 
tricky. 

A Chinaman's surname then is unchangeable, and 
generally consists of one syllable, though there are a few of 
two or three. The surname comes first, and the other names 
afterwards — in fact the Chinese follow the convenient order 
used in our directories. A remembrance of this would 
prevent the foreign resident from prefixing our ' Mr.' to the 
personal name of a Chinese. It sounds incongruous enough 
to prefix 'Mr.' to a Chinese surname — an attempt to mix 
two civilisations which will not blend together in harmony, 
but it sounds ten times worse to call a perfect stranger by his 
personal name and then prefix a ' Mr.' to it. To illustrate : — 
Say a Chinese bears the euphonious designation of Ch'un 
Wa-fuk. Now the first, Ch'un, is his surname, and Wd-fuk is 
what he elects to be called by, his Christian name in fact. If 
the ' Mr.' must be used, then he is Mr. Ch'un or Mr. Ch'un 
Wa fuk, but not Mr. Wa fuk or Mr. Fuk any more than Mr. 
John Harry Jones is Mr. John Harry, or Mr. Harry, to a 
stranger. 

Though it generally happens that the fii'st syllable or 
word in the string of three words, which usually form the 
surname and name of a Chinese, is the surname, it does not 



NAMES. 397 

abvays follow that it is, as Chinese have a few double surnames 
as well as English (they have even a very few trisyllabic 
surnanies)one of the most common of these bisyllabic sur- 
names in the South of China is Au-ycing, so therefore in the 
combination Au-yong Tat the two syllables form the surname 
and the last syllable the name. 

About a month after birth a feast is given, and the boy 
gets his •' milk name ' as it is called. This name clings to 
him through life, as in fact all his names do after they are 
once bestowed. This milk name is, if anything, more especially 
distinctive, as it is used by his relatives and neighbours, and 
in official matters if he has no ' book name.' This name of 
infancy often consists of but one character, and in that case 
has, in the extreme South, the prefix Ah put before it, so 
that a boy named Ch'un Luk will commonly be called Ch'un 
Ah luk, though the Ah is not really a part of his name. In 
the Fuh-keen so-called dialects, this Ah is not used. 

On first going to school the boy has another name 
given to him, the "book name.' It 'generally consists 
of two characters, selected with reference to the boy's 
condition, prospects, studies, or some other event connected 
Avith him.' This name is used by his master and school 
fellows, in official matters, and in any matters connected with 
literature. 

On marriage the young man takes still another name, his 
style or 'great name,' and this his father and mother and 
relations nse as well as the ' milk name.' 

Another name called 'another style' may be assumed^ 
which is employed by acquaintances and friends, not by 
relatives and parents. The latter have a right to use the 
' milk name,' but with well-to-do people who have more than 
one name, it is not considered the proper thing for outsiders 
to call a man by his 'milk name,' of course it is different with; 
farmers, labourers, and others •who only own one name. 



398 THINGS CHINESE. 

On taking a degree, on entering official life, or on having 
official distinction or rank conferred on him, a man takes yet 
another name, known as the ' official name.' 

After death he is known by his posthumous name in the 
Hall of Ancestors. 

Besides all these, we may notice one or two other 
designations. It is a very common thing for the Southern 
Chinese to give a suggestive soubriquet to anyone who may 
have some personal defect or characteristic, and the euphonic 
syllable. Ah, is often used before these, leading foreigners 
to think that such a nickname is a real name ; it is at the 
same time tantamount to a real name, as everyone speaks 
of the person so-called as such, and calls him or her by it. 
The individual bears it complacently, knowing that he 
must accept the inevitable. Such names are called ' flowery 
names.' When they consist of more than one syllable the 
Ah is dropped : they are used in combination with the 
personal name or not ; as instances of this class are such 
names as Giant Ah Yong, (here Ah Yong, of course, is the 
man's right name) other terms of a similar kind are Dwarfy, 
Fatty, &c. A very common one, used alone, without any 
name with it, is Ah Pin=flat, meaning flat nose, another 
often heard is Tau-p'ei, small-pox marked, and there are a 
few others. 

To cheat the evil spirits which may wish to rob a man 
of his son, the boy may be called by some name that will 
convey the idea of vilifying the young child, such as 'Puppy.' 
or his head may be shaved and he be called "Buddhist priest.' 
It is not at all uncommon to call the children in a family 
Primus, Secundus, Tertius, &c., but this practice sounds 
rather ridiculous when it is not limited to the first few 
^numbers, and one hears . a child or boat woman called 
Duodecima. 

There is also yet another name, which is a very ini- 
!portant one, it is the t'ong name. It is difficult to convey its 
import by an English translation, but it may be rendered, by 



NAMES. 399 

■'ancestral name,' or 'family name," or 'house name,' remem- 
bering that all these terms must bear a restricted meaning 
if applied to the Chinese. A man of means, having a 
house of his own, is sure to possess such a name, and 
he has, in all probability, inherited it from his father or 
ancestors, unless he has risen from the loM'est ranks of society, 
and has to select such a name for himself. This name will 
generally be found up at his door on a small board. It 
represents himself and it also represents his family in a way. 
If he dies, his sons (if they continue to live together, as the 
Chinese so often do. in the same family house) retain the 
name, and together, or separa tely, make use of it. This t'on<^ 
name is often used in business, some partners appearing 
under such names, while others appear under some of their 
other names. In such a case the t'ong name in the partner- 
ship may only represent one man or the whole branch of the 
family, with what result of confusion and shiftiness when 
bankruptcy occurs may readily be understood, for only one 
member of the family may be down in a firm's book under 
his t'ong name, and in other cases this t'ong name in a firm's 
books may not represent one man but the family, and there 
may be, which often happens, no proof of what it really 
stands for. If, however, the brothers separate and live in 
different houses, they add certain Avords to the t'ong name 
signifying "second family' or 'third family' &c., as they 
may chance to be second or third sons, &c. The t'ong name, 
has the word t'ong attached to the end of it, and is otherwise 
composed of some happy sounding combination of words, 
such, for example, as Wing Shin T'ong, which might be 
rendered into English as ' The Hall of Eternal Goodness.' 

One of the most ridiculous mistakes which foreign 
residents make in China is calling natives by the name of the 
business they are engaged in. True enough a Chinese when 
asked who he is, or 'Who you b'long ? ' in pidgin-English, 
will perhaps answer ' Sun Shing ' : so a man from a foreign 
business might say at times, 'I am Smith, Brown & Co.' It 
is, however, in fact more absurd to call such a man Mr. Sun 



400 THINGS CHINESE. 

Shing, or look upon that as his name, than it would be to call 
the other Mr. Smith Brown ; in the latter case it is possible 
the man's name may be Smith or Brown, in the other it is 
almost impossible that the man's name could be Sun Shing, 
A clearer idea of the incongruity of thus styling Chinese 
might be got by supposing that a foreigner in England, see- 
ing the name ' Royal Oak ' over a public house should style 
the proprietor Mr. Royal Oak. At the same time, some of the 
very small master masons, &c., occasionally add the character 
Kei to the end of their surname and name, and take this 
combination as their business style; for instance, a man named 
Ch'an Ah Luk, might take as his business style Ch'an Luk 
Kei. This is the only approach to a man's name appearing 
in his business on his signboard; for the majority of ' business 
styles ' are such combinations as ' Mutual Advantage/ 
' Extensive Harmony,' and ' Heavenly Happiness.' 

A man engaging in different branches of business will 
also often take different business names for each branch, or 
use .some other metliod of distinguishing the different 
businesses. 

Girls are left out in the cold as far as names are 
concerned. They have to be content M'ith a milk name, a 
marriage name, and nicknames. 1 hey retain their own 
surnames when married ; that is to say. a married women 
considers her maiden surname as her own, and gives it as 
such ; by courtesy she is addressed by her husband's surname, 
being the equivalent of our Mrs. So and So. In official 
documents her two surnames are given one after the other. 
and the combination serves as her name; for example, a 
Avoman's maiden surname may be Lei, her married surname 
Ch'an. She would then be known as Ch'an Lei Shi, the Shi 
denoting that she belongs to the Lei family by birth. 

A lady will not give her name. The author has heard 
a Chinese lady, when asked her name in court, answer that 
she had no name. The stranger must be content with simply 
knowing the combination of two surnames, such as given 



NAMES. 401 

above; for there is a feeling, partly of modesty, partly of 
fear, that an impudent stranger might, in sheer impertinence, 
call her by it if it were known. The wives of labourers and 
of tlie lower classes do not have the same feeling, and will 
tell their names freely, at least the Cantonese will ; and with 
this experience of them it was curious to the author to find 
the same class of people in Ch'ao Chow-fd not prepared to 
respond freely to such inquiries, the questioner having to be 
content with the husband's name (not surname) followed by 
the word sister, aunt, or mother, according to the age of the 
woman. 

Emperors in China also rejoice in a multiplicity of names 
which are very confusing to the foreign student of Chinese 
history. After his death the Emporor is known by his 
posthumous title, such for example, as 'The Great Ancestor*,' 
' The INIartial Ancestor,' &c., &c., &c. While he is on the 
throne, the years of his reign have a designation which serve 
as the equivalent of his name. This ' year style ' is composed 
of two characters, which, in combination, will sound well, such 
for example, as ' Compliant Rule.' Fortunately, in this 
present reigning dynasty, the one designation serves for the 
whole reign, but it has not always been so, and confusion seems 
worse confounded when every few years in one sovereign's 
reign the 'year style' is changed, owing possibly to some 
untoward event having happened. Such changes have taken 
place half a dozen or more times. It will tlius be seen that 
the name by which an Emperor is known is not one of his 
own personal names, as in the case of Queen Victoria or 
any of our Western sovereigns. In fact, a Chinese Emperor's 
personal name is too sacred to bo used by the general public, 
no one is permitted to utter it or even write it, as long as 
the same family remains on the throne, even though the 
Emperor who bore it is dead; and to prevent this difficulty, 
the characters composing it are changed by the alteration or 
addition of parts of the character. Nor is it proper for a 
child to use his father's own name; it is considered dis- 
respectful. His father's name is tabooed, so is a husband's 

2 A 



402 THINGS CHINESE. 

name to a wife ; so far is this carried that some wives 
amongst the Chinese do not even know their husbands' 
names. After this it will excite no surprise to learn that no 
one one is alloAved to use the names of Confucius and 
Mencius. The surnames of these sages, however, are not 
considered sacred. The great sage of China has many 
descendants to this day bearing liis honoured cognomen. 

Literary men are fond of the disguise of a now deplume 
in China as well as in the West, and when it is remembered 
that China is the 'Flowery Land' it may readily be under- 
stood what a fanciful form such a name sometimes assumes. 

N'A VY. — In the first and second editions of this book 
we wrote : — 

*We have a very fine coat, but there is no man inside it,' such 
was the estimate of the Chinese Navy by a Chinese naval officer of 
the Northern Fleet, and probably a very just estimate, not only cf 
that portion of the navy, but of the whole of the modern Chinese fleet 
made on Western lines ; for very fine vessels they are, but the Chinese 
cannot yet, with all their inexperience of them and their bribery and 
corruption, be proper masters of their own vessels. 

When we turn to the native junks, which were all the navy she 
had till of late, we find that for conflict with Western powers, China 
is as ill-prepared as a soldier of the time of the Norman conquest 
would be at the present day. 

We may now add she was almost as ill-prepared with 
her modern ironclads. A fleet of twenty-five vessels of all 
sizes and armaments forming the Northern Squadron, or the 
greater part of it belonging to that portion of the Chinese 
navyj some of the number being powerful ironclads built 
in Europe, were lost to the Chinese during the late disastrous 
war with the Japanese in ISQi. These vessels were sunk, 
or destroyed, or set on fire, or surrendered to the Japanese, 
while one or two of them were wrecked, the Japanese 
gaining a considerable addition to their navy. As the 
Chinese fleet of ships built on foreign models consisted in 
1892 of 47 men-of-war of one class or another it will be seen 
that half of their vessels and of those many of them of an 
advanced type were lost at almost one blow. 'The officers 



XA VV. 403 

and men liad both received mucli careful training ' — a most 
complete one and of "' a very efficient standard ; ' but official 
corruption added to the vanity and ignorance so frequently 
displayed by the Chinese naval authorities in recent years 
worked out their natural result in the first serious conflict 
with the foe. This is not the first serious disaster that the 
Chinese have suffered in trying their prentice hands at the 
modern game of war, for a fleet of ve3sels, eleven in number, 
built on the foreign model, were sunk or destroyed by the 
French in August ISSl-, at Foochow, by a fleet immensely 
their superiors ; but this last one in ISOi was a far more 
severe blow and a far greater loss than the previous one. 
To repair this annihilation and carrying off of the major 
portion of their modern naval force, the Chinese are recons- 
tructing their navy. It was stated some time ago that the 
first instalment of this new fleet, to be built in Europe, 
would consist amongst other ships, of 2 battleships of 8,000 
tons, 2 armoured cruisers of 5,000 tons, and 4 protected 
cruisers of 3,000 tons. 

One writer well says, ' It may be predicted, however, that 
unless the Chinese improve their present system of recruiting 
and training, the fleet which they are now seeking to re-form 
will be exposed to * * * a disaster similar to that of 
Wei-Hei-Wei.' 

In addition to these vessels we should mention four 
powerful torpedo-boat destroyers of 6,000 horse-power, to 
steam at the rate of 32 knots per hour. 

The Chinese do not depend for their war vessels entirely 
on those constructed in foreign lands, but at the various 
arsenals established of late years on the models of those 
amongst Western nations they are able to turn out new ships 
for their navy. A steel cruiser of about 1800 tons has lately 
been completed at the Foochow arsenal. She is to be armed 
entirely with quick-firing guns, and will probably be employ- 
ed as a training vessel for the new graduates of the Tientsin 
Naval Academy. It will thus be seen that the Chinese are 

2 A 2 



404. THINGS CHINESE. 

gradually building up their ruined navy again, or at least 
the northern portion of it, for with but one or two exceptions 
it was only the Northern Squadron that was engaged in the 
Japanese war, and an amusing story is told of the Captain of a 
vessel belonging to another portion of the Chinese navy, 
when taken by the Japanese, requesting to be let off, as his 
ship did not belong to the Northern Squadron which only 
was fighting the Japanese. 

The Chinese fleet is divided into the North Coast 
Squadron, the Foochow Squadron, the Shanghai Flotilla, and 
the Canton Flotilla. We have already spoken at some length 
of the efforts being made to re-form the North Coast Squadron, 
destroyed during the late Japanese war. 

The Foochow Squadron was stated in 1892 to consist of 
* nine cruisers of from 1,300 to 2,480 tons, three gunboats, 
nine despatch boats and three revenue cruisers ; ' but this 
Nanyang (i.e. South Coast) fleet Avas described in 1894 as 
consisting of the cruisers ' Kaiclii,' ' Huantai' ' Clcin^tsung,' 
' Namsheng/ ' Namsimi ' (German built), ' Paoning ' and the 
sloops ' Weiching ' and ' Chiinho,' besides the following 
mosquito gunboats (carrying one 36 ton gun each) 
'Lungsiang,' ' Iluivei,' 'Felsing,'' and 'Ts'etlen.' The Southern 
Squadron has its head-quarters at Foochow, and its officers 
have a slight acquaintance with foreign methods. 

The Viceroy Chan Chi-tung also possessed in 1894 'four 
sloops built either at Shanghai or Foochow, whose names ' 
commenced 'with the characters T'su, denoting the provinces 
(Hunan and Hupeh) they are intended to protect.' 

In 1892 the Shanghai Flotilla consisted 'of an armoured 
frigate, 2,630 tons, a gunboat, six floating batteries (wood), 
and three transports.' 

In the same year the Canton Flotilla consisted of ' 13 
gunboats * * of 100 to 350 tons displacement.' Since 
then there has been added to the last flotilla three large steel 
cruisers, named the ' Kxiangdda,'' Kiiangplng.' and 'Kuang-i/i' 



yAvy. 405 

These three ships ' arc commanded and officered for the most 
part by young men wlio received their first foreign education 
in the United States. Their commodore is named Yii, and 
is reported to have seen some active service.' Most of the 
principal officers of the late Northern Squadron, it may be 
remarked, had also been taught the European methods of war, 
though the late Admiral Ting who was in command had not had 
such a training, being a purely native untrained Mandarin, 
his substantive appointment being that of a General of Cavalry; 
the Chinese have not yet learned with regard to government 
officials, in the words of Herbert Spencer, that ' the trans- 
formation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, is 
that in which progress essentially consists;' for a Mandarin 
is considered to be in a general way competent to undertake 
any duties, civil, military, naval, judicial, fiscal, or even those 
connected with civil engineering. The more progressive officials 
see that this plan will not do with regard to a navy on foreign 
lines, and consequently the inferior officers have been educated 
in Europe as well as at different places in China where naval 
colleges and arsenals have been established of late years. 
There has been an arsenal at Foochow for a number of years 
past, where Chinese youths are trained ; besides this there are 
naval colleges at Wei-hai-wei, Tientsin, andCanton(Whampoa); 
and a new Naval College was opened at Nanking at 
the end of 1890 with a full complement of 120 cadets, which 
have been since reduced to 80. It started with 16 instructors, 
two of whom were English. There are two departments : 
one of navigation and one for engineering, the cadets being 
divided between the two. The course is to take five years, 
then four years on board ship, after which, M'ill come the 
rank of midshipman. 

It has been recently stated that the Foochow arsenal, 
which has fallen behind in the rapid advances that have 
taken place in recent years in naval construction is to be 
reorganised and brought up to the requirements of modern 
times. 



406 THINGS CHINESE. 

A number of small gunboats are found at difFerent 
ports in connection Avitli the revenue service, the Imperial 
Maritime Customs, as well as others under the control of the 
high provincial authorities or others. 

The purely native craft are uncouth looking objects, and 

utterly unfit to cope for a moment with foreign vessels. 

Jhuih, recommended. — Brassey's • Naval Annual.' ' The Statesman's 
Year Book.' P^or an account of the destruction of the Chinese fleet at 
Foochow, see ' The French in Foochow,' by J. F. Roche and L. L. 
Cowen, U.S.N. 

NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS.— At several 
of the Treaty ports there are foreign newspapers. In 
Shanghai three dailies are publised in English, viz. : — 'The 
North China Daily News,' in the morning ; and the 'Shanghai 
Mercury,' in the evening ; there is also the ' China Gazette.' 
^J here are three weeklies : ' The North China Herald,' 
'The Celestial Empire,' and "The Temperance Union.' 
There is the ' Chefoo Express' at Chefoo. In Amoy a small 
shipping sheet is printed called 'The Amoy Gazette,' and a 
weekly appears named 'The Amoy Times and Shipping 
Gazette.' 'The Foochow Echo' is the one paper that that 
city boasts of. In Hongkong there are three dailies; 'The 
Hongkong Daily Press,' a morning paper, and 'The China 
Mai],' and 'The Hongkong Telegraph,' both evening papers. 
There is one weekly, ' The Overland China Mail.' There is 
also 'The Hongkong Weekly Press.' The clientele of these 
are principally foreigners, but a few natives who know 
English subscribe to them. 

There are several Portuguese papers in Macao and 
Hongkong, one of which publishes a portion of its contents 
in English. 

Of periodicals, in English there is the ' China Review ' 
published in Hongkong, and in Shanghai 'The Chinese 
Recorder and Missionary Journal' issued monthy and 
* Woman's Work in the Far East ' issued half yearly (See 
Article on Books on China.) B;^sides these, there are two or 
three journals of difFerent societies, and 'The China Medical 
Missionary Journal' issued quarterly. 



NEWSPAPERS ASD PERlODtCALS. 407 

The first European journal publised in China was 'The 
Canton l^egister' issued in 1827. 

As regards papers published in Chinese, many of which 
are commercial ventures, there are in Shanghai the ' Shun Pao ' 
and the 'Hu Pao.' sold at the price of ten and eight cash 
each ; these have a very large circulation, also the Sin Wan- 
Pao, Su-Pao, and Ku Chi Yi Wan Hu Pao.' Also a paper pub- 
lished for women called 'Nu Hsiao Pao.' There is the monthly 
illustrated journal "The Wan Kwo Kung Pao;' 'The Chung 
Si Chao Hui Pao/ a monthly journal: 'The Shin Chang' 
Hwa Pao,' issued twice a month. The Hwa T'u Sin Pao, a 
monthly journal ; and the Yut Pao, a monthly illustrated 
journal. There are five Chinese daily papers in Hongkong : 
' The Chung Ngoi San Po,' issued from the ' Daily Press ' 
office ; ' The Wa Tsz Yat Po,' or ' Chinese Mail,' published at 
the 'China Mail' office; 'The Ts'un Wan Yat Po/ and 'The 
Wai San Yat Po,' and ' The H ongkong T'ung Po.' In Canton there 
are 'The Ling Ntim Yat Po,' ' The Kwong Chi Po,' ' The Chung 
Sai Po.' In Macao there is 'The Chi San Po,' issued thrice 
a week, and the daily ' P6.' Tientsin and Hankow also 
possess native papers : ' The Kwok Man Po ' and ' The Hon 
Po. In Foochow there is a weeklv paper ' The Man Shang 
Will P6.' 

All these native papers mentioned are the direct result 
of foreign influence, as before the arrival of foreigners in 
China the Chinese had no newspapers according to our idea 
of the term. 

'The Peking Gazette' is the only newspaper the Chinese 
had till recent years, and it is the oldest newspaper in the 
world. It is published daily, being more of the nature of a 
Government Gazette than an ordinary newspaper. 

It is simply the record of official acts, promotions, decrees, and 
sentences, without any editorial comments or explanations ; and, as 
such, of great value in understanding the policy of Government. It is 
very generally read and discussed by educated people in the cities, and 
tends to keep them more acquainted with the character and proceedings 
of their rulers than ever the Romans were of their sovereigns and 
Senate. In the provinces, thousands of persons find employment by 



408 THINGS CHINESE. 

copying and abridging the "Gazette" for readers who cannot afford 
to purchase the complete edition.' 

' The printing is effected by means of wooden moveable types, 
which, to judge from some specimens examined, are cut in willow 
or poplar wood, a cheap if not highly durable material. '' * '^' * 
An average Gazette consists of lo or 12 leaves of thin, brownish 
paper, measuring 7^ by 31 inches, and enclosed between leaves, front 
and back, of bright yellow paper, to form a species of binding. The 
whole is roughly attached or " stitched " by means of two short 
pieces of paper rolled into a substitute for twine, the ends of which, 
passing through holes, punched in the rear margin of the sheets, are 
loosely twisted together, [This being the usual manner of "stitching" 
small pamphlets in China.] •■■■ "* '"' ''■' '■''' '"* The inside 

I'eaves, being folded double in the usual Chinese fashion, give some 
twenty or more small pages of inatter, each page divided by red lines 
into seven columns. Each column contain 14 character from top to 
bottom, with a blank space equal to four characters in height at the 
top.' 'As everything which the Emperor says takes precedence of 
everything else, his replies to memorials appear in advance of the 
documents to which they relate and this produces an effect much 
like that of a Puzzle Department, where all the answers should be 
printed one week, and the original conundrums the ne.xt.' 

Several newspapers and periodicals are published by the 
missionaries in different parts of China, some partaking more 
or less of a scientific and religious character as well as detailing 
news. A fcAV of these have been mentioned already by name, 

A few years ago it was stated that there Avere thirty-one 
newspapers and periodicals published in Chinese, of which 
* fifteen are religious and sixteen secular ; ' but there are a 
good many more now. 

There can be no doubt that the modern newspaper is 

destined to be an important factor for good in China, if it 

falls into judicious hands. Unfortunately, a tendency very 

occasionally reveals itself to pander to depraved tastes in 

articles not conducive to public morality, and a rabid hatred 

of the foreigner is sometimes visible in some distorted account 

of them and their doings, but on the whole, the •' tendency 

seems towards morality, &c.' 

Boohs recommended. — ' List of Periodicals in the Chinese Language,' 
being Appendix F. to Kecords of the Missionary Conference held in Shanghai 
1890. ' The Peking Gazette :' being an article in ' The China Review,' vol. 
3, p. 12. See also article on ' The Peking Gazette and Chinese Posting ' b}'. 
E. H. Parker in ' Longman's Magazine ' for November 1S06. An article on 
the European Press in China, by M. Henri Oordier appeared in the ' China 
Mail ' some time ago. 



I 



% 



NOBtLlTY. i09 

NODTLITY.—ThciQ is no real nobility in China. 
Mayers, in his invaluable work on Government Titles, says :— 

'The existing Chinese system of conferring patents of nobility, 
and honorary titles is linked by an unbroken chain of descent with the 
history of the feudal states of the sixth century before Christ, 
perpetuating in its nomenclature, on the one hand, the titles of the 
semi-independent Princes of that era, and, on the other, the names of 
official degrees which have ceased for many centuries to exist in 
practical operation. ■■■■ •"■ * * The titles now conferred are not to 
be regarded as other than official distinctions of a peculiar class, and 
cannot rightly be considered as bestowing aristocratic position or 
privilege in the European sense. The nine degrees of nobility, 
indeed, which arc conferred at the present day, and which are either 
heritable within certain limits, •'' '■■ * or hereditary for ever, "'■■ ''•' * 
are granted exclusively as rewards for military services.' 

The five highest ranks of hereditary nobility then are Kung 
(Koong). Hau (How), Pak (Pahk), Tsz, and Nam (Nahm), 
generally rendered into English as Duke, Marquis, Earl, 
Viscount, and Baron. Each of these is subdivided into classes or 
degrees. 'To the titles of the first, second, and third ranks lau- 
datory' titles or terms ' are appended, significant of the special 
services by which the rank has been earned.' We are not aware 
Avhether an attempt has ever been made to render the four 
lower ranks into an English equivalent. Any such attempt 
would probably be even less successful than than that already 
made as res^ards the five his'her ranks. These lower titles 
' have occasionally the degree next above them '•' annexed " 
* * * the bearer being thus enabled to rank " with, but 
after," possessors of the title immediately preceding.' All 
the difi'erent ranks, except the lowest, are 'hereditary during 
a specified number of lives, ranging from twenty-six ' for a 
Duke of the first class, to one for the eighth rank, the next 
but lowest of all. Any of them also become hereditary by 
being 'conferred posthumously * * '* on ofiicers killed 
in battle.' Meritorious public servants are also rewarded by 
having hereditary official rank bestowed upon their sons, 
grandsons, younger brothers, or nephews. The whole 
principle it will thus be seen is against perpetuating hered- 
itary rank, the son with but few exceptions — so few as to 
be scarcely woithv of notice -takino- a lower title until at 



410 THINGS CHINESE. 

length the status of a commoner is reached. The most 
noticeable exceptions are the following :— the lineal des- 
cendant of Confucius who is a Duke : and the descendants of 
MenciuSj and of Koxinga (the Conqueror of Formosa) each of 
whom is a Marquis. The son of a man of exceptional renown, 
such as of the first Marquis Tseng, whose son, the well-known 
minister to England, has the title continued ; but it goes no 
further unless the son's deeds have been such as to merit its 
bestowal on the grandson. 

Titles of honour are also conferred as rewards 'for 
merit or service, or of Imperial bounty on occasions of 
rejoicing.' These are bestowed upon the official himself, his 
wife, parents, or grandparents while they are living, or 'as a 
posthumous distinction * * *= to his deceased progenitors.' 
These titles differ for each of the nine degrees of official rank 
(See Article on Mandarin) and their subdivisons, making in 
all eighteen, while the wives have nine. Military officials 
also receive honorary titles of a martial character. 

Posthumous titles of honour may be granted to 
officials losing 'their lives at sea or on any of the inner 
waters, wliilst engaged in the public service,' and their eldest 
sons are given official rank. Most sensibly the Chinese have 
put before them merit as the cause of their nobility, and not 
the mere circumstance of blue blood. The class which in 
European lands would form the aristocracy, is in a very, 
comparatively, inferior position in China. There are certain 
classes who own titles on account of kinship with the 
Emperor; but here again heredity is the exception, and 
extinction of the title (which decreases in degree from father 
to son) happens in the case of descendants of a prince in 
about twelve generations. The only exceptions to this rule 
amongst these classes are the eight 'Iron-Capped Princes,' 
who are descendants of the Chieftains who immediately 
preceded the Sovereigns. Another, is the Prince of I, a 
descendant of the thirteenth son of K'ang-hi, the second 
Emperor of this dynasty. These all retain the title in 
perpetuity. 



NUMERICAL CATEGORIES. 411 

NUMERICAL CATEGORIES.- ''^Mmhev has long 
exercised a peculiar faociiiatiou over tlie Far-Eastern mind. 
Europeans, no doubt, sometimes use such expressions as 
"The Four Cardinal Virtues " and *• The Seven Deadly Sins," 
but it is not part of our mental disposition to divide up 
and parcel out almost all things visible and invisible into 
numerical categories fixed by unchanging custom, as is the 
case among the nations from India eastward,' so writes 
]Mr. Chamberlain in 'Things Japanese.' The Chinese have 
thus grouped together any and everything into such classes, 
beginning with two and ending with ten thousand. The fact 
that Mayers ' Cliinese Reader's Manual ' has a second part, 
consisting of sixty-seven pages, devoted to this portion of 
Chinese literature, will show its importance, and even it is 
not an exhaustive list; to it we refer the curious reader, 
while we only give a dozen of the most common : — 

The Two Emperors of Antiquity, Yao and Shun, who 
reigned B C 2357 and 2287 respectively. 

The Three Lights : The Sun, Moon, and Stars. 

The Three Powers of Nature : Heaven, Earth, and 
Man, which taken together are used in the sense of the 
universe or creation in general. 

The Four Cardinal Points : North, South, East, and 
West. When the centre is included, they are called The 
Five Points. 

The Four Books, Avhich with The Five Classics 
may be called the Bible of the Confucianist. (See Article on 
Literature.) 

The Five Blessings : Longevity, Riches, Peacefulness, 
and Serenity, the Love of Virtue, and An End Crowning 
the Life. 

The Five Elements or Primordial Essences : Water, 
Fire, Wood, iMetal, and Earth. 'Upon these five elements or 
perpetually active principles of nature the whole scheme of 
Chinese philosophy * * * is based.' 



412 THINGS CHINESE. 

The Five Metals : Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead and Tin, 
and Iron. 

The Five Esculents or Grains : Hemp, Millet, Rice, 
Corn and Pulse. 

The Five Colours : Black, Eed, Azure (Green, Blue, or 
Black), White, and Yellow. 

The Eight Genii, or 'Eight Immortals, venerated by 
the Taouist sect'; each celebrated for possessing some mystic 
power or owning some wonderful, magic-working instrument. 
One, if not two of them, were females. One went about with 
one shoe off and one shoe on; another, having gone up to 
heaven, and left injunctions that his body was to be preserved 
for seven days for his return, found on his soul desiring to 
re-enter it after six days, that his disciple, who had been left 
to Avatch it, had been called away to his mother's death-bed, 
and consequently his master had no vitalised body of his own, 
but was forced to enter that of a beggar just expired; 
another had a white mule, by which he was carried thousands 
of miles in a single day, and which was folded away and 
put into his wallet at night, and resuscitated in the morning 
by his master spurting water from his mouth on him. 

The Eighteen Arhan : Eighteen of Buddha's immediate 
disciples, which are found in Buddhist temples. Bosides 
these there are The Five Hundred Disciples of Buddha, 
also found in some temples, the number is even carried up to 
ten thousand sometimes. 

The following are in common use likev.'ise amongst the 
people of Canton, and similar geographical and other combina- 
tions are doubtless used in other parts of China as well. 

The Three District Cities, 'Mm, P-un and Shun ; that 
is Nam Hoi, P lin Yil and Shun Tak. 

The Four Great Trading Marts, viz., Fatshan, Han- 
kow, Kintak ( the great porcelain manufactory), Chi'i Sin. 



OPIUM. 113 

The Four District Citiks : Yan, Hoi and San, in concise 
terms ; but in full, Yan P'ing, Hoi P'ing, San Ning, and San 
Wiu all in tiie Canton or Kwongtung Province. 

The Lower Four Puefectures: K6,Loii, Lim, and K'ing, 
in concise terms ; in full Ko Chau fii, LiJii Chau fu, Lim Cliau 
fii, and K'ing Chau fii. 

OPIUM. — The poppy seems to have been cultivated 
in China as an ornamental flower in the Sung dynasty or 
before and the healing virtues of its seeds were commended, 
while 'the medical use of the capsules was of course early 
known.' Opium was used for medicinal purposes, and it was a 
highly esteemed drug, being imported overland from Burmah 
and through Central Asia. There would appear not to bo 
sufficient warranty for the opinion that the poppy was 
grown in China at an early date for other than ornamental 
purposes; everything points to a contrary conclusion. It was 
*an article of trade at Canton in the middle of the last 
century,' but, up to nearly the close of that century, it was a 
limited trade. 

We quote from Dr. Dudgeon, of Peking, a short summary 
of the origin of that destructive vice, opium-smoking : — 

' Opium-smoking was introduced from Java by the Chinese 
from Chien-chieu and Chang-chow in the early years of the i8th 
century and towards the end of the reign of Kanghi 1662 — 1723. 
The first edict issued against it was in 1729, and was directed against 
the practice in Formosa, and was the result of a report of an official 
sent by Kanghi to inquire into the unseemly proceedings in the 
island. Kanghi died, and his successor was some six or seven years 
on the throne before steps were considered necessary •'' * * 
to stop the evil there. It had been introduced by people from the 
above two prefectures on the mainland. From Formosa and these 
southern ports, the practice spread eradually and very slowly. As 
late as the end of the century, the import and consumption of opium, 
both for medicine and smoking, was comparatively trifling. The 
use of opium, first as capsules and then as an extract, is of older origin 
and was used solely as a medicine. Part came by land through 
Central Asia by the Mohammedan merchants and travellers, part by 
sea to Canton, and pan also overland from Eurmah and India. The 
opium which came overland was for the most part as tribute, and 
we read in the Ming history of as much as 200 catties for the 
Emperor and 100 catties for the Empress being presented as tribute. 
Other drugs were likewise presented. '■■ ■■' "' " •■■ At the 

time when smoking began, a short bamboo tube filled with coir, 
opium, and tobacco was the regular mode of insufflation. 



414 rmXGS CIIINESE, 

The present pipe is more modern, and is said to have been 
invented in the province of Canton. '■'■ ~ '^' The native growth 
is of still more recent origin. The cultivation of the poppy, for 
the sake of its extract, began about 70 years ago. Since that time 
it has been gradually making its way over the Empire, until now 
there is not a province where it is not grown. * '^'' '' The native 
growth and consumption of the native drug having thus largely 
inceased in the North, it has, year by year, been driving the Indian 
article out of the market. This process bids fair to continue to 
increase, and at no distant day in all likelihood the foreign import 
will cease, unless it can compete with the native in price. Its 
superior quality and freedom from adulteration would in these 
circumstances always command a sale. * * The great 

dimensions to which the native growth is reported latterly to 
have grown is only, it is evident, within the past few years. The 
native growth has been stimulated by the growing demand for 
opium and its profitable nature, the poppy not being taxed as a 
cereal. '- * * The increase of the native growth is accounted for 
by the fact that it is profitable to admix with the Indian, and the 
proportion given is native ^^ with foreign ^V- * * The consumption 
of opium, where it was formerly strictly forbidden, has greatly 
increased since the relaxation caused by the late agreement, by 
which the Imperial Government collects both Import and Lekin 
duties at the ports, and opium is allowed to pass freely throughout 
the Empire.' 

With regard to this increase of the native opium we 

are informed from another source that : — 

'The Chinese are every quarter increasing the native grown 
opium * * the import of the foreign drug is steadily declining in 
consequence.' Again 'The Customs returns for 1895 show that the 
market falling in the import for 1894 was not arrested in 1895 but 
on the contrary the decline in the trade was even more conspicuous 
in the latter year. * * * * It is a question of cost. * ""' •"' * 
The poppy is rarely met with in Kwong Tung, and as the soil and 
climate are not favourable it is not likely to be extensively cultivated 
there.' 

'In 1887, the value of the opium imported was Hk. Tls. 
27,926,865, and the figure for 1S97 stands at Hk. Tls. 27,901,056; but 
whereas in the former year the sum expended procured a supply of 
74,350 piculs, the almost identical amount in 1897 purchase only 
49,217 piculs. The cost of the foreign drug has increased since the 
closing of the Indian mints, and the quality of the native drug is 
said to be undergoing an improvement which brings it more into 
demand.' 

It is but natural after this to find the following as a 

newspaper summary, made within the last few years, of one 

item of our Indian revenue : — 

Opium. — Decrease Rx. 1,550,000. This represents a distinct 
worsening of the financial position with no corresponding gain to the 



1 



OPIUM. 415 

people of India. This part of tlie revenue lias nothing to do with 
the consumption of opium in India (which is taxed under Excise), 
and is in reality the profit of the Government of India as a monopolist 
manufacturer and exporter to foreign markets (chiefly China). At 
all times subject to great fluctuations, this source of income shows 
a steady tendency to decline.' 

The following on the taxation of native opium in China 

was published in 1897 and will be interesting in this 

connection : — 

'According to a memorial of the Board of Revenue recommending 
a new system of taxing native-gfown opium, the chief opium producing 
provinces in China are stated to be Szechuan, which will produce 
this year a crop of 120,000 piculs ; Yunnan, So,ooo piculs ; Kueichou, 
40,000 piculs ; Chekiang, 14,000 piculs ; Kiangsu, 10,000 piculs ; Kirin, 
6,000 piculs; Anhui, 2,000 piculs; Fukien, 2,000 piculs; and the provinces 
of Kansu, Shensi, Shantung, Shansi, Honan, and Chihli, an aggregate 
amounting to 60,000 piculs, or a total of 334,000 piculs from 14 out 
of the 21 provinces which constitute the present empire of China — 
not including Outer Mongolia and Tibet. The memorial further 
states that according to the above estimate which the Board has 
reason to believe to be quite accurate, having been compiled by Sir 
Robert Hart at the Board's request, the duty on the native opium 
this year should amount to at lease 20 million taels, at the ordinary 
tax of Tls. 60 per picul ; but, so far, not a third of this amount has 
found its way to the Imperial exchequer, the rest having gone to 
enrich the provincial authorities and their tax collectors. It is now 
proposed to begin with the provinces of Kirin, Szechuan, Yunnan, 
and Kiangsu, for the collection of native opium duty which is to be 
handed over to the I.M. Customs at Shanhaikuan, Chungking, 
Mengtze, and Chinkiang, respectively.' 

When the liking for it began the English, to their shame, 
be it said, continued to bring the fatal drug to administer to 
the depraved tastes of the Chinese, whose rulers made most 
piteous attempts to prevent its introduction. And the feeling 
of dislike to the English, and, through them, to the hated 
and despised foreigner in general, partially due to this cause, 
is not confined solely to the upper classes, as any one may 
find who knows the language and mixes with the people; for 
it is not an unfrequent question : — Why do you foreigners 
bring opium to China ? And the only reply that can be 
given is : — There are bad people (there is no use combatino- 
the idea of the badness of the people who do such a thino- — 
it is a foregone conclusion in a Chinaman's mind) in every 
nation as well as good ; and if you Chinese would not smoke 
it, they would not bring it. 



41.6 THINGS CHINESE. 

It is impossible to say what proportion of Chinese smoke 
opium, but immense numbers of all classes of the community 
do so ; in some parts of the country the proportion is larger 
than in others. From the Jmpenal Palace clown to the lowest 
hovel every class has its smokers, even women and children 
are in some places, preys to this insidious vice. Mony 
smoke it, as we have already said, at the present day, and the 
number is increasing. It has been estimated that there are 
25,000,000 of opium smokers in China; another estimate, 
considered to be moderate, puts them at 4<0,000,000, that is a 
ninth, or tenth, of the Avhole population. In the city of 
Toochow alone there are said to be 1,000 registered opium 
dens, they ' being more numerous than tea or rice shops.' 

The habit is easily begun ; the offering of it, as a glass 
of wine amongst may classes of Englishmen, easily leads 
the fashionable votary into the practice; the fast man takes 
it sometimes as an aphrodisiac ; the prostitutes take it 
because their visitors do ; others take it first to ease pain, or 
disease ; Avhile others are led into it by their friends and 
acquaintances. In this connection it is interesting to note 
that, ' figures taken from the Perak hospital returns during 
1893 and part of 1892 show that no protective influence 
against malaria can be claimed by the opium smoker.' 

Once formed, the habit is very difficult to break — some 
try, over and over again, to wean themselves from the pipe. 
One man actually came to a hospital no less than five times 
for that purpose. Five hundred smokers in the course of one 
year were desirous of entering a refuge, which \^'as opened 
in Foochow, in order to cure themselves. 

Opium is the most common means of committing suicide 
at present in China, and China is said to have the unenviable 
notoriety of being the country in wliicli suicides are most 
frequent. ' Since the introduction of opium in China, suicides 
have become alarmingly frequent.' 

The evils which arise from opium-smoking are many. 
It injures the health and physical powers, especially of the 



OPIVM. 417 

working and poorer classes, whose wages are only sufficient 
to meet their necessities, and who curtail the amount spent 
on food and clothing to gratify their craving for the vice, and, 
consequently, are less able to resist its inroads on their system ; 
whereas the wealthy buy certain foods with the purpose of 
nourishing and strengthening their systems against it. All 
these factors, and others, have to be taken into account ; and 
it must also be remembered that there are some men who 
have such a resolute will (though like many other vices, the 
opium habit weakens the will power) that having fixed upon 
a certain amount as the limit of their indulgence, they do 
not overstep it, thus staving off" some of the worst effects of 
opium-smoking. Those who have yieded to it for years, and 
who are slaves to the pipe, are miserable if circumstances 
should arise to debar them from their accustomed whiffs : it 
is extraordinary to see how perfectly wretched they are ; every 
attitude, every feature of the face, every sentence, is a living 
witness that they are in agony till the craving is satisfied. 
The opium sots or •' opium devils,' as the natives term them, 
are pitiable objects emaciated almost to a skeleton, until they 
finally succumb to their vice. 

As to wealth, it often melts away when the pipe is 
indulged in. The author remembers especially one case where 
a man smoked away a valuable property consisting of a 
number of houses advantageously situated in the city of 
Canton, and ev^entually smoked himself into his grave. It is 
a great waste of time, as the process of smoking is a slow 
one and requires long preparation, and, as the habit increases, 
more has to be smoked to produce an effect, and consequently 
longer time spent over it : from a quarter, or half an hour at 
first, it increases till hours are required, and a great part of 
the night is wasted in it instead of being spent in sleep. The 
smokers lie down in couples across a wide couch with a small 
stool-like table between them containing the opium-tray, on 
which are the pipe and pipe bowls, opium lamp, and the 
different instruments used in connection with the pipe. Taking 
up the pipe one of the smokers lifts up a small quantity of 

2 Ji ^ 



418 THINGS CHINESE. 

opium on the end of a long needle-like instvament. The bowl 
of the pipe is held over the lamp, and the drug, which has 
been- already prepared so as to ba of the consistency of 
treacle, is worked by him in the heat of the flame into the 
small orifice of the pipe-bowl. This takes some time, and, 
when all is ready, a few whiffs exhaust it, so that the whole 
process has to be gone over again, each smoker often taking 
the preparation of the pipe in turn. The following account 
by a doctor who has paid much attention to the subject gives 
with minute exactness the whole process summarised 
above : — 

'The smoker, lying on his couch or divan, with the pipe, lamp, 
and other implements on a tray, takes a portion on the point of a wire 
and warms it carefully over the flame of the lamp. He dips it again 
into the little jar of opium until the requisite quantity adheres, 
alternately warming it over the flame and pressing it on the flat bowl 
of the pipe, turning it over and over and working it carefully on the 
end of the wire, until it is reduced to the state of a soft solid by the 
evaporation of a portion of the water. During this process it swells 
up into a light porous mass from the formation of steam within, and 
must therefore be heated up to the boiling point of water. When the 
little bolus has been brought to the exact state fitted for smoking, it 
is worked into a conical-shaped ring around the wire, the point of the 
wire inserted into the round hole of the pipe, and, by twirling the wire 
around while withdrawing it, the opium is deposited on the pipe, the 
hole in it corresponding to the hole in the bowl of the pipe. The stem 
of the pipe being applied to the lips and the bowl held over the lamp, 
the heat of the flame is drawn in over the opium, converting into 
vapour all the volatilizable material in the bolus. To understand 
what takes place, it is important to note that, preparatory to smoking, 
the bolus of opium has been slowly and carefully heated until steam 
has been generated in its substance. While in this heated state, and 
with water enough to prevent charring and to form more steam, the 
flame of the lamp passes over it, converting part of it into the so-called 
smoke, and leaving" a solid residuum known as "in-she," opium dross, 
and also as "i-in," seconds.' 

The vapour is inhaled into the lungs, and comes in contact 
with the immense surface of the respiratory mucous membrane, by 
which the alkaloids are absorbed into the blood, and thus act upon 
the whole system. 

Notwithstanding the theory of some scientific gentlmen 
* '■' that none of the alkaloids 

are carried by the smoke into the system, it is demonstrated a 
thousand times a day by every whiff" a Chinaman takes of his pipe 
that certain constitue7its of the xvatery extract of opium are converted 
into riajjour : nnd the sallow complexion, stupid visage, and Vvasted 
frame of old smokers, and especially the remorseless grip of the 



OP 1 UAL 419 

craving on every librc of their ncrv(nis system, afford strong reason 
to believe, if they do not absoUitely prove, that every inhalation of 
the vapour conveys a portion of the alkaloids into the victim's blood.' 

Opium-smoking induce laziness, idle habits, and un- 
willingness to exertion, shortens life, and diminishes vitality. 

' Among the well-to-do, with healthy constitutions, good food, 
comfortable surroundings, and especially if there be pressing business 
to attend to, the drug may be used for a lengthened period without 
any apparent deleterious results, but at the same time it will be 
observed that any indulgence in the vice, even under the most favour- 
able circumstances, diminishes functional activity in the nervous 
system, impairs and arrests the process of secretion, and ultimately 
produces structural changes in important organs, and a general under- 
mining of the constitution all round. Although the effects are more 
gradual, they are none the less sure. Vital resistance to its evil 
effects is soon diminished as the smokers become poor, thus depriving 
the victims, not of opium, for the supply must increase with the 
craving, but of the necessary sustenance, thus enfeebling the system, 
and rendering it more susceptible to its evil influence. * •'* * 
Sooner or later retribution overtakes them, and they are suddenly cut 
Qff_ c o xhat there is no more harm in its continuous use 

than smoking the mildest cigarettes is an utterly absurd statement. 
It is pernicious in itself apart from its too frequent conjunction with 
other well-know social evils. In such cases opium tells with redoubled 
violence '■•■ •'■ The reasons for believing the habit to be harmless 

and that it can be abandoned without suffering, have been made by 
some to depend upon the bodyweight of the smokers when admitted 
to gaol and once a week afterwai'ds. The weight is not much effected, 
provided the habit is not great nor of great duration, and the material 
surroundings are good.' 

'After the imperious craving has been established, then the 
smoker smokes not for positive enjoyment but to relieve the pains 
and aches which the non-satisfaction of the craving sets up. It 
is foolish to read of the stalwart races which are addicted 

to opium. It is quite fallacious to reason thus, the Chinese are given 
to opium, but the Chinese are industrious, therefore, opium isbeneticial. 
The poor, lazy, good-for-nothing people in China are the opium 
smokers,' and, if they ai'e not that when they begin to smoke 
it, the vice soon does its best to hurry them to these conditions. 
'No doubt immediately after the craving has been satisfied, there 
is unwonted brilliancy and activity, both physical and mental, and 
this requires constantly to be renewed. '■■ ■•■ •'' There does not 
seem much hope for the rejuvenescence of China so long as this 
terrible evil remains in their midst, the vice is enthralling, the craving 
is imperious, and the abandonment of the habit extremely difficult.' 

A new vice, that of the subcutaneous injection of morphia, 
appears now to be following that of opium smoking, and the 
habit is spreading rapidly in some parts of the country at all 
events. It was making enormous advances in Hongkong until 

2 B 2 



420 THINGS CHINESE. ■ • 

put down by law a few years since. As an instance of what a 
hold the habit takes on the people already prepared for it by 
opium smoking, the following facts as to the practice taken 
from a British Consular Report, and the Imperial Customs 
Annual Report, may prove of interest : — 800 ozs. were import- 
ed in one month in 1894 in Amoy, and there was a decrease 
in the import of opium. Some of it was d(nibtless used for 
pills, powders, &c., and not all for hypodermic injections. 

The habit of injecting morphia was greatly on the in- 
crease in Amoy in 1894, there being many establishments in 
the city where the practice was carried on. ' Habitual opium 
smokers taking to morphine injections are enabled to abstain 
from the opium pipe, but are by no means cured of opium 
smoking, as a cessation of the injection habit inevitably 
leads to an increased indulgence in smoking.' In 1895 the 
total amount of morphia imported into Amoy was 4,835 ozs. 
and of hypodermic syringes ] 28, in Shanghai for the same 
period 64,043 ozs. were imported, being double that of 1894 
and more than four times that of 1892. The Commissioner 
of Customs thus speaks of it in that part of the country : — 
'Though partly consumed as a liquid decoction, it is chiefly 
used to make pills and tabloids, which are taken as a 
substitute for opium by those who find it inconvenient to 
smoke during business or when travelling. This easily 
becomes a habit.' The Commissioner at Canton says, 
'morphia * * ^ is largely being availed of amongst 
[opium] smokers.' In the general report on the foreign trade 
of China for the same year (1895) we find it noted that, 'there 
is a large increase in the importation of morphia, which in- 
dicates a greater use of so-called anti-opium pills and that 
indulgence in morphonism is spreading.' It appears that the 
amount and consequently the habit must be increasing for in 
the Annual Returns for 1897 it is stated that in Amoy, 9103 
ozs. of morphia, valued at Hk. Tls. 15,473, passed the 
Customs, - - the highest total yet reached , In Shanghai, for the 
year 1897, it had risen to 68,170 ozs.; and in Canton the 
amount for the same year was 1.580, value Hk. Tls, 2,429, as 



PAGODA. 4-21 

against a value in 18J)o of Hk.Tls. 951. A large quantity of 
opium pills are also made, and sold under the name of anti- 
o[)ium pills. Some, in the endeavour to give up opium 
smoking, try these ; but they seldom cure anyone of the 
liabit : they simply, by the opium they contain, satisfy the 
longing of the smoker and enable him to stave off the desire 
to smoke for awhile. Those who take them can also conceal 
the opium habit from their friends for a Avhile ; they 
require less waste of time as they are swallowed at once, 
whereas the smoking, if much is taken, runs away with hours 
which a poor man can ill afford. They are mostly prepared 
from opium dross mixed with soft-boiled rice, or paste, and 
various medicines according to the different prescriptions. 
They would appear to be somewhat cheaper than the opium. 
There are CJiinese opium dens in tlie United States and 
in l^ondon. It was stated on good authority a few years 
ago, that 2,500 Chinese visit the port of London in the 
course of the year — chiefly sailors, firemen, carpenters, cooks 
and stewards employed on steamers running between China 
and England, as well as a few more permanent residents ; 
so that there are quite safRcieut out of that number to 
patronise these places and keep them going. Opium probably 
costs the Chinese at least 168,000.000 taels annually. 

Booh'.-! rrroin mended. — 'The Evils of the use of Opium," by J. Dudgeon, 
M.D. • British Opium Policy ' by Kev. F. S. Turner, B. A., London, Sampson 
Low, Marston, Searle and Rivingfton, gives a good account of the opium 
question up to about 1.5 years ago. 

PAGODA. — ^The word Pagoda is descended from the 
Sanscrit Chagavatl through the Persian hootkuda or the 
Hindustanee poutkltoda or bootkhoda, and means '' the house 
of idols,' • the abode of God,' or •' Holy House.' *' According 
to the original use of the word in India, it is a name given to 
the various buildings where they worship idols,' and it has 
been employed in the same indiscriminate way by some 
writers on China, but the majority of modern writers restrict 
the use of the term to the tower-like structure common in 
China, described as '' a peculiar class of buildings that rise 
several stories high in the form of a narrow and polygonal 
obelisk, whether tenanted by idols or not.' 



'i22 THINGS CHINESE. 

These picturesque objects that crown a jutting eminence 
or stand on a swelling hill ; that rise from the general dead 
level of the shanty-like buildings forming a Chinese city ; 
or again are seen breaking the monotony of low-lying lands ; 
so common that they seem almost a natural feature in a 
Chinese landscape : these are not native but of foreign origin, 
and introduced, so it is said, after the Christian era. 

The great majority of pagodas in China are ancient, 
and in Chinese scenery take the place of the old and ruined 
castles to be met with in the West. The stiffness of the 
lines has been toned down by the kindly hand of time in 
the course of the centuries which have generally passed 
since their erection. Decay has dislodged a brick here and 
there in the galleries (placed often at each story) round 
the tall shaft-like structure, while sometimes the lightning 
in its play, or the wild winds in their sport, have robbed the 
ambitious tower of its topmost stories, or, at least, of its 
crowning glory, an imitation of' a big bottle gourd.' Nature, 
in another of her aspects, has dropped a seed in the mother 
earth; unnoticed it has lain till, mixed with the other 
materials, it has been used in the building, and the fierce 
tropical sun has warmed it into maturity ; or, failing that, 
the feathered songsters of the air have plucked the ripe 
berries and left the seeds on the pagoda ; in either case 
the result is a growth of shrubs and bushes and young trees, 
which add to the beauty of the tower and also accelerate 
its decay. 

Pagodas are usually of seven or nine stories in height, 
though any odd numbers such as three, five, eleven, or 
thirteen stories are known — odd numbers being most pro- 
pitious : those above nine stories are very rare, though there 
have been one or two, if not more, constructed of that height. 
It has been the intention to erect some of thirteen stories, 
but want of funds or fear of destruction by the elements (the 
Chinese have no lightning rods) have caused the Chinese to 
desist from the attempt. With regard to their dimensions it 
has been stated that • the average heisrht of the loftiest 



PAGODA. 423 

j)agoda«! is about 170 feet.' The famous Nankin pagoda was 
261 English feet high. The walls of pagodas are of great 
thickness especially at the base, reminding one of the old 
walls of castles in England. They decrease proportionately 
in circumference and in thickness as they ascend. One in 
Soochow (in which city there are five) is nearly 300 feet in 
circumference, or about 100 feet in diameter at the bottom, 
•and its ninth or uppermost story is about one-third in 
circumference " of the base. They are generally hexagonal 
or octagonal in shape externally. The number in China 
must be enormous, Williams estimates there must be nearly 
2,000 in the empire. 

On each story are openings — doorways, or windows, — 
neither furnished with doors, nor glazed, adding much to the 
picturesque details of these interesting buildings. There are 
cornices at each story on the outside, forming at times 
only ornamental details, while at others they are developed 
into outside galleries, or balconies, going round the whole 
pagoda. These galleries are either improtected or railed, 
and the openings in the brickwork of the tower, already 
mentioned, give on to these cornices or galleries. From 
them, magnificent bird's eye views of the city at one's feet, 
or of the surrounding country, are obtained, increasing 
in range as the visitor ascends succeeding stories ; but it is 
not every pagoda that is open to ascent. Some are in too 
dilapidated a condition to be safe, and the officials prohibit 
visitors going up, and close the entries ; others, though 
safe enough, have proved too common and easy a point 
of departure for giddy or weak-brained mortals to essay 
a flight into the great unknown. As to the modes of 
ascent they may be divided into two categories : none or 
some. In the former case, none being provided by the 
builders, the inhabitants in the neighbourhood appear with 
a long plank ready to assist, for a remuneration of course, 
the aspirant to giddy heights. This long plank is thrown 
from the windows of a lower story to those of the next, 
and, once crossed, it is pulled across and the further end 



424 THINGS CHINESE. 

raised again to the next higher story. Thus slowly, stage 
by stage, the traveller ascends, crossing his improvised 
bridge, while a slip, or a fall of brickwork, would precipitate 
him to the foot of the hollow tower. A trick with the 
Chinese in the olden days was, when half Avay up, or when 
the top had been reached, to take possession of the plank 
and refuse to place it in position for the descent until their 
rapacity had been satisfied by the bestowal of some coin, 
thus cruelly extorted by them. A steady brain is required in 
such a mode of ascent, as well as when a staircase winds round 
the interior of the structure without any railing or protection 
whatever. In some pagodas, however, each stage has a floor. 
In one the author ascended at the District City of Tie-yea, 
near Swatow, such was the style and there were separate 
stair-ways round the interior of the building for each story. 
The lowest of all was unprotected for the greater part of its 
ascent, after which it entered the wall of the building and 
landed one on the first floor ; the succeeding staircases being 
all within the thick walls. The galleries were protected by 
balustrades and were of sufficient width to allow of those 
going in one direction to push past those going in the 
opposite. 

Buddhist temples are often erected at the foot of a 
pagoda, the primary object of a pagoda having been to 
preserve the relics of a Buddha or saint. The Chinese have 
improved on this, and firmly believe that, in order to 
conserve or improve the propitious geomantic influences of a 
place, it is necessary to have pagodas ; and they consequently 
take a prominent position in the curious medley of superstition 
and glimmerings of natural science known as Fung Shui 
(see Article under that heading). Their presence is supposed 
to ward off" evil influences and attract those conditions which 
go to make up the Chinese idea of a state of prosperity, so 
much prized by them, and for the attainment of which they 
will sacrifice almost everything. As a concrete example of 
the good they produce, it may be noted that the presence 
of a pagoda in a city Avill cause numbers of its studious 



PAOODA. 12.-) 

youths to gain literary distinctions in the Civil Ser\ice 
examinations. 

The geomancors of Canton say that the t\vo pagodas 
inside that city are like the two masts of a junk, tlie stern 
sheets being the huge, five-storied, barn-like structure on the 
walls at the north of the city. To an imaginative people, 
like the Chinese, such a comparison is highly felicitous. 
A large commercial centre is thus symbolised and a 
concatenation (of pagodas and buildings) producing such a 
symbol is looked upon as not only being an emblem of what 
the city actually is at present, but as a means of insuring 
(for such probably would be the train of thought evolved) a 
future continuance of such commercial prosperity as long as 
such emblems continue to exist. The prosaic Englishman 
spends thousands on a grand system of underground drainage 
to improve the sanitary conditions of the city he lives in: the 
Chinese knows nought of, and cares less about, sanitary 
science, but he firmly believes in spending money to secure 
long life, health and prosperity, and to preserve him from 
all the evils and dangers that surround him. He as firmly 
believes, as the Englishman in his system, that centuries of 
experience have proved that the means of obtaining such 
blessings is to erect new pagodas or to repair those already 
in existence in his district. The four winds may blow, but 
under the benign influences of the pagoda they are averted ; 
the dire waters may flow, but the pagoda wards off" their 
evil results. 

An illuminated pagoda : such a sight is worthy of 
fairy-land, whether a mass of Chinese lanterns turns the 
slender, pointed tower into a tongue of fire against the dark 
background of a moonless skv, or whether each coisfu and 
vantage ground forms a resting place for a glimmer of 
light ; but we question whether the reality comes up to 
the ideal, as 14'0 lamps for the Nanking Porcelain Tower, 
when it was in existence, seems but a small allowance for 
such a large building. They are hung at the windows and 
from each corner of the different stories. 

2 c 



42() TIIINGFi CHINESE. 

The aggregate sum of money spent on tlie erection of 
pagodas in China must be something enormous. 'The entire 
building at Nanking cost the Imperial Treasury no less than 
2,485,4S4 taels of silver— ^3,300,000 ; ' and the repairs of 
another cost |2G,000. Sixty years were spent in the 
construction of one. 

Besides the pagodas already written about, known as 
fd Pap, flowery, or ornamented, pagodas, there is another 
variety, known as mvn t'ap, or put t'f'ip. literary, or pencil, 
pagodas, which are very numerous in the South of China. 
They are often seen on the banks of rivers and are supposed, 
like the others, to exert a good influence on the neigh- 
bourhood. 

Some people have been misled into thinking pagodas 
were intended as beacon towers ; but beacon towers are quite 
different from them. The author saw three of the latter just 
behind some foreign houses in Swatow, in a grove of trees. 
They cannot have been used for some scores of years, and, 
hidden as they were, M'ould not serve any good purpose now. 

Pagodas are occasionally erected at the present day, but 

not often ; the first Avas probably built in the third century. 

Jioohs rceommendcd. — An article entitled ■ rasodas in China," in the 
' Transactions of the C. 1!. of the R. A. S.,' I'art V.. \k>:K Williams's Middh- 
Kingdom,' Vol. I., pp. 102, 743, 74.">. Archdeacon Gray's ' China,' Chapter 3 1 . 

PAWNSHOPS. — Towering above low-lving dwellinorg, 
and pierced by numerous small windows, the massive, square 
erections of the pawnbrokers' strongholds, are seen dotted 
here and there throughout the Chinese city or town. They are 
the objects which first attract the attention of the stranger, 
who naturally is surprised when informed that they are not 
fortifications but pawnshops. 

Conspicuous they arc in material substance, and they 
hold an equally prominent position in the social economy 
of the curious and complex product of Eastern life and 
prudential economy, which constitute the average Chinaman's 
life. The Westerner must dismiss from his mind all pre- 
conceived ideas of pawnshops and pawnshop-keepers. The 



PA\\y>sJlol'S. 1.27 

position tliose latter liold is a highly respectable one, and 
the business is one in which a moneyed man is glad to 
invest liis hard-earned savings, or an official his surplus 
cash, as a share in the joint-stock concern nhich many ot" 
them are. Native banks 'would ap[)ear to restrict their 
operations more amongst trade, or business, people, while 
the pawnshop comes in for a share of the business which, 
in England, would otherwise be monopolised by the banks. 

It' its shareholders are merchants and officials —^people 
of respectability and position — so its clientele not only 
embraces, as in England, the spendthrift, the livers from 
liand to mouth, the hopelessly impecunious, those who are 
sunk in the lowest depths of poverty, the gambler, the thief, 
the robber, and the burghir, the opium-smoker (who takes 
the place so ignominiously filled by the drunkard in our 
countries of the West, though even the drunkard is found 
in China amongst those who frequent the pawnshop, for has 
not tlie poet Tu Fu sung : — 

' From the court every eve lu llic pawnshop I pass. 
To come back from the river the drunkest of men.'j ; 

but they also still further boast, in almost equal num- 
bers, of the most respectable classes of society amongst 
their numerous clients. Rumour now and again whispers 
that even in jjondon some of those in good positions 
in the would, as far as family and connections are con- 
cerned, contribute customers to the sign of the three 
gilded balls, but these transactions are done nah voscl and 
most indignant Avould these same customers be if they were 
taxed Avith them. John Chinaman, unlike John Bull, 
has nothing to be ashamed of — in fact any idea of such a 
thing as shame entering into his mind with regard to such 
a common and honest business transaction would not find 
a lodgment in his brain. The pawnshop is a safe repository 
for the gentleman's or lady's furs in summer, where they will be 
well taken care of and preserved from the destructive moth ; 
and, again, in winter, the summer robes of thin and diaphanous 
material may be caretully housed in the same storehi.>use. 

2 ( 2 



128 THINGS OnlNESE. 

There are several classes of pawnshops, but, for all 
practical purposes, they may be considered as separated into 
two divisions. They have different regulations as to rates 
of interest and the length of time unredeemed pledges are 
kept before being sold, &c. A very common rate of interest 
is thirty-six per cent, a year. A not unusual sight is a lot 
of pawn-tickets for sale on a street stall. Those who buy 
them have, of course, the right of redeeming the articles on 
pledge for which they are issued. 

Pawnshops form a fine object of attack for burglars or 
robbers; and. notwithstandinsj all the strength of their 
construction, their massive doors, their narrow windows, and 
the piles of stones on the roof to throw down on the heads 
of their assailants, as well as all the precuations taken in 
early closing, the attacks made on them are sometimes 
successful. It is dangerous work to engage in, as, if caught, 
the penalty is death, 

UdtiJi reco))n)i ended. — Gray's ' Cliiua," Vol. J I, Chapter 20. 

PHILOSOPHY, — We do no propose to enter on a 
long dissertation on Chinese Philosophy, whether it be ethical 
as applied to every-day morals, with its five virtues; or 
cosmogonal, as applied to the evolution of the finite from the 
infinite, the conditioned from the unconditioned, and the 
production of light and darkness. Here one appears to be on 
solid ground, but when one follows out the reasonings and 
statements of the ancient philosophy, and comes on stalks 
of milfoil, and the carapax of a tortoise, the eight diagrams, 
the eight trigrams — notwithstanding the assurance that 'it 
is very probable that there is underlying ' them, the trigrams, 
•'a definite system of natural philosophy' — it all appears to 
the foreign reader, Avho has not imbibed the true Chinese 
spirit, which sees 'good in everything' Chinese, to the 
uncivilised barbarians, that the most of us are outside the 
pale of the Middle Kingdom, it seems a system of hocus 
pocus ; the feeling is but little modified though one is 
assured that the Grand Plan is typified in them, that the 
dual principles of nature are working in their midst, and 



pinLosopjiy. 421) 

tliat they •typify the transt'orination whieh the dual princi[)lc 
of Heaven and Earth undergoes in tlie plienomenal clianges 
of nature." This is all caviare to the Westerner, who has 
no taste for Chinese delicacios ; and to the general reader it 
all seems incomprehensible and unfathomable, for the ancient 
philosophical worthy who devised these mystic combinations 
appears to the common mind to have lost himself in the maze 
of his dreams and speculations. How incoherent the 'Yik 
King ' ('the Classic of Changes') is, which deals ad nauseam 
with these diagrams and their commutations, may be gathered 
from the fact that the Lite Professor Terrien de Lacouperie 
asserted it to be a word-book of Accadian or Babylonian 
words, but the Chinese, by the aid of commentaries, have 
read sense and meaning into what would otherwise baffle 
the common intellect to fathom. 

One turns with more pleasure to the speculations of the 
heretical Micius (Mih Tsz), who, shunned by the unapprecia- 
tive, orthodox, Chinese scholars, laid it down as a principle 
• to love all equally * ; and the brilliant Chwang Tsz's 
paradoxes, his fables, his mysticism, are all more congenial 
to the Western mind — more practical in their bearings, 
notwithstanding all the defects and errors, than the dry 
sticks of the milfoil and the harder shell of the tortoise, who 
withdraws under his testudo and resists all the prying efforts 
of the seekers after knowledge. 

We might wander amidst the speculations of different 
writers subsequent to the Confucian age, when many were 
'distinguished for the boldness of their theories and the 
freedom of their utterance,' where, besides the names already 
mentioned, may be cited those of Licius (Leih Tsz), Mencius, 
Sun Tsz, and others, but time will not permit ; nor can we 
follow the mazes of the speculative philosophy, which 'sprang 
suddenly into existence' under the Sung dynasty. In fact, the 
whole subject is a vast one, diverging into many branches, and 
worthy of an exhaustive treatise dealing with it alone. We refer 
the reader to our article on Taoism in this book for some 
notice of Cliancius (Chwans: Tsz), with his vivacitv and 



deliriuub fertility of imagination, whose writings have been 
described as * a storm of dazzling effects.' 

Jioohx rccovniieiuh'd. — Articles (jiititled ' Friigiiieutiiry Studies in 
Ancient t'liiricsc rhilusopiiy,' by Kev. E. J. Eitel, Ph. D., in ' Cliina Keview.' 
Vol. 15, p. 338, and Vul. ]7, p. 2(>. The jirolegoMiena to Vol. 2 of Legge's 
' Chinese Glassies,' and the • Classic of Changes." translated hy the same 
aMthor. ])nblished in the Sacred Hooks of the East' !5erie^. Vol. XVJ. 
'The Dof/trine of the Chi,' a very interesting jiaper hy Sir Chaloner 
Alabaster in "The China lleview,' Vol. 18, )). 211'.). 'The Doctrines of 
Confucius : A Systematic Digest, according to the Analects. Great Learning, 
and Doctrine of the Mean, with an Introduction on the Authorities iip(jn 
Confucius and Confucianisn.' by liev. K. Faber, Tii. D., translated from the 
(rerman by P. tJ. von Moellendorff. •The Mind of ilencius, or rditical 
Economy Founded upon Moral Pliilosophy : A Systematic Digest of the 
Doctrines of the t^hinese Philosopher. Mencius. B.C. .32.5. The Original 
Text classified and translated, with notes and explanations by Kev. E. 
Faber, TH. D., translated from the German with notes and emendations by 
Kev. A. B. Hutchiusou.' ' The Divine Clas-iic of Xaii Hua. being the works 
of Chuang Tsz, Taoist Philosopher,' by F. H. Balfour, F.R.G.S. ' Chuang Tzti. 
Mystic, Moralist, and Social P„eformer,' translated by H. A. Giles, contains 
au interesting uote, occupying twenty pages, on the i)hilosophy of Chaps 1-7. 
])y Kev. A. Moore, Oxford, ])ointing out the parallelisms of thought and 
reasoning between the Greek philosophy and the Chinese. ' Keinarks on 
the EthicM.l Philosophy of the Chinese,' by Dr. Martin, in his 'Han Liu 
Papers.' A paper by Kev. Grifilith John, in '.Journal X. C. Br. K. A. S.,' Sept. 
]S6(t, and one by Kev. J. Edkins in sanie Journal for May, 18,")9. 'The 
Philosoph)\ Ethics, and Keligion of Taoism, chiefly as developed b.y 
Chwang Tsz.' by W. P. Mears. m.a., ji.d.. in 'China Keview.' Vol. XIX. 
p. 225. 

PIDGIN'ENGLISIL—MhQn foreigners settled in 
China, finding the language difficult to learn, and the Chinese 
finding English nearly equally difficult for them to acquire, a 
middle course was struck and the outcome \vas the mongrel 
talk, called pidgin-English. We say a middle course was struck, 
for the Mords employed are generally English modified to 
suit the defective pronunciation of the Chinese. For example? 
the letter /• is dropped and / substituted, while the idiom is 
Chinese, and, in the absence of infiectiou and declension, the 
Chinese is again copied. The result has been a most wonder- 
ful gibberish, especially when talked in its purity. It is. of 
course, not at all like Chinese, and is so unlike English, that 
new-comers require to leain it. The difference between it 
and proper English was once unconsciously and wittily 
expressed by a Cantonese shop-keeper, who, finding himself 
at a loss to understand the correct English spoken by a new 
arri^al, turned to his friend, au American, and said ; • 3Ioh 



PHILOSOPHY. 431 

bettah you fion talkec Englisheo talk, my no sabbee Melican 
talk.' A very few of the words employed in pidgin-English 
are Chinese so distorted as to be almost past recognition, 
M'hile Portuguese, Malay, and Indian have also added a few 
words to the vocabulary. Some residents have occasionally 
amused a leisure hour by putting a few of the gems of English 
literature into this jargon, M-ith the result that diamonds of 
the first water have been changed into ashes. The soliloquy 
in Hamlet commencing, in pidgin-English, 'Can do. no can 
do. how fashion,* as well as 'Excelsior,' and other poems, 
have shared this fate. We give a specimen at the end of this 
article, but very few of any of the pieces pat into this lingo 
represent it as it is really spoken, as hs. (js, ds, and rs, are all 
left in, letters which, when the Chinese speak it, are not 
pronounced, but />*■, A-^-, ts and !>•: are used instead. The 
pidgin-English, as usually written, represents it as it is 
pronounced by the foreigner, but not as it is spoken by the 
majority of Chinese, and tlie latter we would maintain is the 
proper pidgin-English . 

Fortunately for all concerned, this dialect of English, 
■wiiich has had an existence of more than half a century, 
seems doomed at last. The extended acquisition of some 
knowledge of English on the part of the Chinese, is super- 
seding its use. we are thankful to say. One very curious 
feature in the employment of pidgin-English, is to find 
Chinese from different parts of the empire, who, on account 
of the difference in the language spoken by them, are unable 
to converse together, occasionally forced to use it, in order 
to be able to hold any communication with each other. 

EXCELSIOR. 

That nightey tiin begin choii-clioii, 
()ii« young mail walkee — no can stoj*. 
Jlaskpp snow 1 maskee ice I 
He oally tlag witli cliop so nice — 

Topside tialow I 

He too nincliey solly, one piecee eye 
Look-see sharp — so — all same my. 
He talk.-y largey, talUcy stlong, " 
'i'oo nincliee cnlio all-same gong — 

'J'upsiile (lalow I 



432 



TITIXGS CHINESE. 



Inside that hou:^e he look-see liglit, 
And evely loom got fire all light, 
He look-see plenty ice more liigh, 
J aside he mouth he plenty cly — 

Topside C>alo\v I 

Olo man talkee 'No can walk, 
By'mbj' lain come. ..welly dark, 
Hab got water, welly wide.' 
' Maskee I My wantchey go topside." 

Topside Oalow I 

• Man-man,' one girley talkey ho ; 
' What for you go topside look-see .' ' 
And one tim more he plenty cly. 
But allo-tim walkee plenty high. 

Topside G allow I 

' Take care t'hat spoil'nni tlee, young man, 
' Take care t'hat ice. He want man-man.' 
T'hat coolie chin-chin he ' Good night,' 
He talkee ' My can go all light.' 

Topside Galow ! 

Joss-pidgin-man he soon begin, 
Morning-tim t'hat Joss chin-chin, 
He no man see — he plenty fear, 
Cos some man talkee he can hear. 

Topside Galow I 

T-hai young man die, one large dog see 
Too nnichee bobbelj' findee he, 
He hand blong colo — all -same ice, 
Hab got he flag, with chop so nice. 

Topside Galow 1 

MORAL. 

Yon too muchee laugh ! what for sing .' 
I tink so you no savvy what ting ! 
Hupposey you no blong clever inside I 
More betta yon go walk topside 1 

Topside Galow I 

Book recommendeil. — Iceland's • Pidgin-English Sing Sonj 
vocabulary, and many pieces put into pidgin-English. 



contains a 



PLAGUE. — Of late years a mystevious disease, which 
from the reports received appeared to be a species of 
malignant fever, was prevalent in the Yunnan Province, and 
excited the curiosity of a few of the foreign residents in China, 
who eagerly scanned any accounts by travellers in the hopes 
of acquiring a fuller knowledge of this fatal malady, which 
seemed to have made its home in the mephitic valleys of 
that distant province. No fears were ever entertained that 



PLAGUE. 433 

tills unwelcome guest of the Yuiiuanoso would start on its 
erratic rambles and visit with its malign presence and 
virulent persistence the south-eastern coasts of the empire 
and commit its ravages beneath the very eyes and, in the 
British colony of Hongkong, in the actual midst, of those 
who had wondered what it was, thus throwing its defiance 
indeed in the teeth of Western 'medical science; but such 
was the case and the unknown visitant proved to be either 
the black plague of mediaeval days, or closely akin to it. 
The black plague which we read of in our history books, in 
luagazine articles, and in Defoe, and whose dread presence 
caused a stagnation of civic life and commerce, spreading 
a dark pall of misery and distress over merry England, 
making our centres of life, veritable cities of the dead, and 
finally reducing the population of the country to one half 
of what it had been before it expired, according to general 
opinion, amid the lurid glare of London in flames, 

' Though not necessarily confined to such, in modern times 
plague, like leprosy, had become practically a disease of warm 
climates. The hygenic conditions which advancing civilisation has 
brought in its train have forced back these two diseases from Europe 
where, at one time, they were even more prevalent than they are in 
their tropical and subtropical haunts at the present day. They are 
typical examples of that large group of acute and chronic germ 
diseases whose spread depends on social and hygenic, rather than 
on climatic, conditions, and more especially on filth and over- 
crowding ; conditions which now-a-days are found, to an extent 
and an intensity sufficient to ensure the endemic prevalence or 
epidemic extension of these diseases, only in warm countries.' 

' The most potent circumstances which predispose to the 
epidemic outbreak of plague are extreme filth and overcrowding, 
in such circumstances the virus, once introduced, tends to spread. 
These conditions, however, are not all sufficient ; for even in the 
filthiest and most crowded Oriental towns and without any apparent 
alteration in the habits or circumstances of the population, the disease, 
after having become epidemic, dies out spontaneously. It may be 
difficult to indicate the exact way or ways in which filth and over- 
crowding operate, but certain it is, as experience has shown, that in 
sanitary hygienic conditions plague does not spread even if introduced, 
and that in opposite conditions it may for a time spread like wild 
fire." 

'Filth and overcrowding imply close proximity ofthe sick and 
the healthy ; an atmosphere saturated with tlie emanations of the 
sick ; a lowered tone of the general health ; abundant saturation of 
soil and surrounding media with animal refuse, fitting them as a 

"2d 



434 THINGS CHINESE. 

nidus for what might be termed natural culture of the germ ; abundance 
of bodily vermin of all kinds [See Article on Insects] ; abundance of 
other vermin, such as rats and mice, which serve as multipliers of 
the virus ; carelessness about personal cleanliness, about wounds of 
the hands and feet, about clothing, and about food, dishes, and water. 
One can understand how in such circumstances the germ has 
opportunities to multiply and spread.' 

* Plague, though " catching," is not nearly so infectious as are 
scarle. fever, measles, small-pox, or even typhus. Medical men, and 
even nurses, in clean airy hospitals rarely acquire the disease, provided 
they h ive no open wounds and do not remain too long in close 
proximity to their patients. In cities, the cleanly districts are general 
spared. This was well exemplified in the late epidemics at Canton 
and Hongkong where the airy, cleanly European quarters and the 
relatively clean, weli-ventilated boat population were practically 
exempt ; whilst the disease ran riot in the adjoining filthy, overcrowded 
native houses only a few yards away.' 

It is thought that the dise.ase may be conveyed to man 
ill food and drink. 

'As far as present knowledge extends, it seems certain that 
plague is also communicated by the breath, inasmuch as the special 
bacilli were found in the saliva of the Vienna victims.' ' The most 
hopeful branch of the inquiry, as far as we can see at present, is 
that which relates to the preparation und administration of preventive 
or curative serums.' 

Before proceeding to an account of its manifestations 
in China in recent times, it may be interesting to give a 
short summary of the known history of the plague. 

'Plague is perhaps the one disease of which we have an 
authentic description at periods of time coming down from 430 B.C. 
to mediaeval times (1348) and so through the Great Plague of London 
(1665-66) to this last epidemic in 1894 [in Hongkong and adjacent 
country]. The character of the disease seems not to have altered in 
any way since the time of Thucydides. The sudden invasion and the 
other symptoms, the buboes and haemorrhages, are all as plainly 
marked in the Hongkong epidemic as they were in Athens 2,500 years 
ago. There is one similarity between the epidemic at Athens and 
the plague of 1665 which we do not find mentioned in Dr. Lowson's 
report of the Hongkong epidemic, so perhaps the same conditions did 
not obtain — i.e., the absence of other diseases.' The Emperor Julian's 
physician mentions the plague. We learn from him that it was 
'endemic in Egypt and Syria from the beginning of the second century 
before Christ.' It appeared in f^urope in the sixth century. This, it 
is said, was the first time in history when 'this formidable disease 
assumed the character of a great epidemic. Breaking out in 
Justinian's reign (A,D. 542) the disease quickly occupied the whole 
of the known earth, and began a tragic course which has continued 
even to our own time.' The black death which swept over the 



conlinciU of Europe in llic I4tli century had several of the symptoms 
of bubonic phigue but it differed essentially from it, (but see 
l^r. Manson's opinion below) so one writer informs us, and he 
proceeds to tell us that Egypt seems to have been the seat of 
origin of bubonic plague and Cathay some centuries later of 
the black death. The ravages of the latter in London in 1665, 
when 70,000 died of it are well known as well as the outbreak in 1720 
in Marseilles after which it appeared in neither England nor France, 
retiring to the Easternmost part of the Turkish Empire in the 
beginning of the nineteenth century and disappeaiing altogether from 
the continent of Europe in 1841. 'Prior to 1 661, there are almost 
continuous records from year to year of the presence of the disease in 
Northern Africa, Asia, and Europe generally, and it is worthy of note 
that as tirst one country and then another in Europe adopted some 
systematic form of drainage and improved habits of life, so soon did 
the plague disappear from these countries.' To epitomise: — ^^' For 
1,200 years it was pre-eminent among pestilential maladies. In the 
16th century, when quarantine was established, 69 outbreaks were 
recorded in Europe ; in the 17th century, 56 ; in the iSth, 28 ; in the 
first half of the 19th, 15, In 1844 it apparently became extinct. But 
about ten years afterwards it again showed itself in the Levant and 
has since occurred in various parts of Asia and North Africa and even 
in Europe.' 

A mofjt interesting account is also contained in 
'Tropical Diseases,' pp. lil-1-16 of the history of the plague 
which does not quite agree with the extract given above and 
i.s fuller, in fact too long to be inserted here. 

After the foregoing, especially after the last sentences, 
a few notes by Dr. Manson in 1878, prefatory to a translation 
of Mr. Rocher's account of the plague in Ytinnan are very 
interesting. Speaking of Mr. Rocher's statement, he says: — 

'They prove unmistakably the existence of bubonic plague in 
China, and that this dread disease has spread over a larger area of 
late years than is generally known. They are of great value as 
showing that the disease did not entirely disappear between the years 
1844 and 1873 as some epidemiologists believe, and thus do away 
with the supposition that in the latter year there was a re-creation of 
the plague virus. 

In 1844, the plague disappeared completely from Egypt and 
Turkey in Asia, and we were told to congratulate ourselves on being 
finally rid of the most terrible of all epidemic diseases. For years 
there was no sign of it in its favourite haunts, and there seemed good 
reason for the belief that it had become a thing of the past. But in 
1873, ^ftcr an absence of nearly thirty years, it once more broke out 
in Mesopotamia, and ever since lias been steadily extending its area, 
till last year it reached the shores of the Caspian. To account for 
this reappearance after so long a period of complete absence, some 
epidemiologists luue pro[)ounded their Ijclief in the spontaneous 

2 t 2 



43G TIlLXas (JJIINESE. 

generation of the plague virus, as it is absurd to suppose that parasites 
could retain their infective powers for nearly thirty years. But in the 
lieht of Mr, Rocher's notes such a thing is unnecessary, as his dates 
bridge over twenty years at least of the thirty during which the 
disease was supposed to be dead, and show that an extensive 
epidemic may rage in mid Asia, and Europe be in complete ignorance 
of the fact. In such a country as Central Asia, where the distances 
are great and travelling very slow, we can understand that such a 
disease as plague would take a long time to pass from west to east 
and back again from east to west, and that an interval of thirty years 
might elapse before the disease returned again to the place whence it 
started. Our knowledge of the countries to the north of the Himalayas 
is so meagre, and communication with them so difficult, that the 
plague might pass through them without our hearing about it at all, 
and one can readily suppose that it did actually pass thus from 
Yunnan to Mesopotamia or Persia to originate the epidemic at present 
raging in these countries. Mr. Rocher's description of the disease is 
sufficiently clear to justify us in calling it plague.' 

The first time we are aware of it in China was in 1811', but 
it did not work so much havoc a.> iu 189i. One of the first 
autlientic accounts, as far at all events as is known at present, 
of it in this land is contained in the following paragraph 
from the ■ Overland Friend of China ' of 23rd May, 1850 ;-- 

' The city of Canton and the neighbour-towns and villages are 
afflicted by a malignant fever. It is commonly called typhus : some 
European physicians are of opinion that it is akin to the yellow fever 
of the West Indies ; others Ihink that it resemble^ the plague xvhich de- 
solated London tzvo centuries ago. The disease is said to be fatal 
imvariably, its victims linger three or four days, though in some 
instances they have died in twelve hours. More than one European 
doctor cheerfully tender their scrvics, — but the Chinese are obstinate 
in their adherence to old custom — old ignorant quackery. The 
distemper has not made its appearance at the Factories, and as it 
may arise from a want of cleanliness among the people, we are in 
hopes that it will not extend to Europeans.' 

We are unable to say what the death rate was during 
this visitation, though hundreds are said to have died, nor can 
we tell whether there had been previous epidemics of it in 
Canton. Chinese accounts, with their utter ignorance of all 
medical kncjwledge, are so meagre and untrustworthy Avhen 
dealing Avith historic invasions of sickness that they are 
extremely unsatisfactory and the diseases they mention are 
difficult of identification, especially would such be the case 
were the plague the subject matter of a terse, short paragraph 
by a Chinese historian. We should almost suppose that had 



it approaclied anything to the horrors ut tlio e[)i(lomic at 
Canton in 181)i, more extended notice of it would have been 
taken by the foreign papers published in tlie Soutli of China. 
For even before the end of its duration in Hongkong in the 
epidemic of 1891', tlie deaths in the city of Canton alone 
were estinuited from the beginning of the outbreak until the 
IStli of June, at 35^000, while the number of deatlis in the 
villages around could not be ascertained. 

We learn from a missionary lady, resident for some 
time in the Pok-lo District, in the Canton Province, tJiat in 
that district or in the Hakka country near there, the Chinese 
say they have had the plague several times; but it had never 
been so fatal as in 1894, ninety pt^r cent dying in that year, 
whereas only sixty or eighty per cent of those who took it 
died previously. We have endeavoured to learn from inquiry 
amongst natives of different districts of country whether 
there were local traditions of visitations of the plague in 
their respective districts; but all the evidence we were able 
to gather, and it was but small in quantity, was of a negative 
character. There would appear to be * very little literature 
on the subject.' One would fancy there would be not a few 
notices of such a dreadful disease ; some may yet be dis- 
covered ; but we have examined book after book to try and 
find some little mention of it. They almost all display a 
a most wonderful unanimity in keeping a discreet and pro- 
found silence on the subject. We carefully looked through 
a standard Chinese work on the Canton Province only to be 
disappointed. Authorities appear in their voluminous tomes 
to flee all references to epidemics almost even as their authors 
A\ould fly from the plague itself. 

Before proceeding to an account of this 1891' epidemic, 
which brought the plague under the immediate purview of 
European medical science and knowledge, it would be more 
historically correct to call attention to its ravages in the 
province of \iinnan. We are indebted iox accounts of it in 
that province to the narratives of travellers and notices by 
one or two of the few residents in that distant portion of 



438 THINGS CHINESE. 

China. From the Notes on the route followed by ^Ir. 
Grosvenor's Mission through Western Yunnan, IVom Tali-fu 
to T'cng-yueh, reprinted from the Parliamentary Report, 
China, No. 3 (1878) we extract the following : — 

'Another strange disease which haunts this and some other of 
the valleys of Yiinnan bears, in some respects,, a resemblance to the 
plague of London described by Defoe. 

Its approach is indicated by the eruption of one or more minute 
red pustules, generally in the arm-pits, but occasionally in other 
glandular regions. If several pustules appear, the disease is not 
considered so hopeless as when there are few. The sufferer is 
soon seized with extreme weakness, followed in a few hours by 
agonising aches in every part of the body ; delirium shortly ensues, 
and in nine cases out often the result is fatal. 

It often happens that the patient suddenly, to all appearance, 
recovers, leaves his bed, and affirms that, beyond a slight sensation 
of weakness, he feels thoroughly convalescent. This is invariably a 
fatal sign ; in about two hours the aches return, and the sufferer dies. 

True recovery is always very gradual. This is the account 
given us by a French missionary, who has spent half a lifetime in 
Yunnan. The native version includes all the above facts, but 
involves them in a cloud of superstitious accessories ; for instance, all 
parts of the sick-room are occupied by devils ; even the tables and 
.mattresses writhe about and utter voices, and offer intelligible replies 
to any one who questions them. 

Few, however, venture into the chamber. The missionary 
assured me that the patient is, in most cases, deserted like a leper, 
for fear of contagion. If an elder member ot the family is attacked, 
the best attention he receives is to be placed in a solitary room, with 
a vessel of water by his side. The door is secured, and a pole laid 
near it, with which twice a day the anxious relatives, cautiously 
peering in, poke and prod the sick person to discover if he retains any 
symptoms of life. 

PereFenouil * * had himself witnessed many cases of the 

disease and lived in infected towns. He attributes his own safety to 
the precautions he took of fumigating his premises and keeping 
charcoal braziers constantly burning, to such an extent, indeed, that 
his house on one occasion actually took fire. He states that not 
only human beings, but domestic animals and even rats are attacked 
by the pestilence. 

Its approach may often be known from the extraordinary move- 
ments of the rats, who leave their holes and crevices and issue on to 
the floors without a trace of their accustomed timidity, springing 
continually upwards from their hind legs, as if they were trying to 
jump out of something. The rats fall dead, and then comes the turn 
of the poultry ; after the poultry ha^■c succumbed, pigs, goats, ponies, 
and o.xcn successively die off, 



PLAGUE. 139 

The good father has a theory of his own that the plague is really 
a pestilential emanation slowly rising in an equable stratum from the 
ground, and as it increases in depth all animals are, as it were, 
drowned in its poisonous flood — the smaller creatures heing first 
engulfed, and man, the tallest of Yiinnan- animals, suffering last. 

The Christian converts suffer less than their pagan countrymen, 
from the superior cleanliness which, as we were informed, their faith 
inculcates. 

We ourselves never saw any cases of the plague ; but we met 
one native of South-western China, no less a personage than the 
(jovernor of the Yunnan province, T'sen, a quiet, sober-spoken veteran 
of a hundred battles, deeply marked between the eyes with a scar 
inflicted by a rebel bullet. He had undergone two attacks ; the 
second was less violent than the first. He remembered nothing of 
the acute period of the illness, but in both cases his recovery was 
gradual and protracted. 

He attributed it to the influence of demons ; and we afterwards 
heard a characteristic instance of his faith in his own diagnosis. 
The head quarters of his division during the Mohammedan rebellion 
were situated in a plague-stricken town, and when the infection began 
to attack his troops, T'sen had all the gates closed except that in the 
southern wall, and then sent in his soldiers with orders to slash 
and pierce the air in every corner that could possibly harbour a demon. 
After this preliminary slaughter the men were formed in line against 
the inside of the north walls, and gradually advanced upon the south 
gate, hemming in the invisible fiends, and ultimately driving them 
with a final rush through the gate, which w^as immediately closed and 
a strong guard placed outside. But somehow or other the goblins 
contrived to regain the interior of the city ; by what means has not been 
ascertained ; but it is surmised that they climbed over the wall.' 

The following summary of Mr. Rocher's account of the 
Plague was prepared by the author and appeared in one of 
the Hongkong local papers in 1894 : — 

•' Some interesting notes on the plague are appended to 
M. Rocher's "La Province Chinoise Yiinnan/' as well as 
some observations on it in the body of the work itself. 

Any information about this disease at the present time 
being desirable, we have embodied what was to be gathered 
from the above work in the following paragraphs, so that 
others who may not have the book in their libraries may 
have the opportunitv of seeing what has been said about it. 

M. Rocher informs us that the plague is known in that 
part of the country by the name oi )faiirj-f:u. In Hongkong, 



no THINGS CHINESE. 

however, we find the Chinese speak of it as wan-yik, the 
epidemic. Not only does it claim numerous victims each 
year in Yiinnan, but it also commits its ravages amongst the 
Laos, as well as on the frontier of the noighboui-ing province 
of Kwei-chou. 

From the information sfiven to M. Rocher. he was led to 
believe that this disease came from Burmah by means of the 
caravans passing between that country and China. The time 
of its first advent seems uncertain, some being of the opinion 
that it first showed itself in the centre and east of the 
province at the time of the great Mohammedan rebellion ; 
while a few hold that it was known in the west of the 
province at Ta-li-fu some years before that event. 

A very curious feature noticed in Yiinnan is the suscepti- 
bility of the lower animals to what is believed to be the 
malignant miasma which causes the disease. The inhabitants 
of the sewers or the dwellers underground are the first that 
are attacked by this fell plague. The rats, driven from their 
holes, rush into the houses, maddened by the mephitic vapours 
which they have inhaled, and shortly give up the ghost ; but 
more often the foul odours from their dead bodies under the 
flooring is a proof of the deadly work v/hich is going on. 
All animals, large and small, are subject to the same in- 
fection : buffaloes, cows, sheep and goats, and the poultry to 
a lesser extent. Some, at all events, of the animals seem to 
suffer less than man fi-om it. 

On his arrival in these parts, M. Rocher refused 
credence to the stories of the natives, believins: them to be due 
to the effect of imagination or to superstitious fears ; but on 
the pest bursting forth in the very district in which he was, 
and having then ocular demonstration of the truth of the 
reports he had heard, his unbelief was changed to ftiith. 

The precautions taken nearly everywhere were to light 
fires in all the rooms in order to purify the houses ; and the 
people in certain cities and districts abstained from the meat 
par evc^Ience of the Chinese— pork. 



j'LAari':. in 

1\[ Roclioi- describes this bubonic plaguo as coninicncing 
with a high fever (we can scnrcely do better than give what 
immediately follows in liis own words) 'accompanied by an 
intense thirst ; some hours after a deep red tumour appears 
in the armpits, the groin, or the neck ; the fever increases 
and the patient soon loses consciousness; the tumour usually 
increases in size until the second day, after which it remains 
stationary. The patient then appears to recover his senses, 
but he is still in great danger : for, if the tumour which up 
to that time has been very hard becomes soft and if the fever 
does not diminish he is considered as lost ; on the contrary, 
if the tumour is pierced on the outside, which rarely happens, 
there is hope of saving him ; but at this stage the patient is 
so weakened that although the tumour may have broken he 
dies of exhaustion.' 

Strange to say, notwithstanding the extreme repugnance 
tlie Chinese have to the surgeon's knife, ]M. Rocher tells us 
that some of the Chinese doctors have tried the effect of 
cutting or excisinsj these tumours ; but whether it be that 
the operation is put off too long or unskilfully performed, 
very few of the p.iticnts have survived the amateur efforts of 
their physicians. The strongest remedy that they employ 
under these circumstances is musk, which is prescribed in 
strong doses as a last resource. Dr. Porter Smith informs us 
that musk is * believed by Chinese authors to be a rousing, 
stimulating, anti-spasmodic, deobstruent, expectorant, dia- 
phoretic, ecbolic, anthelmintic, and vulnerary remedy, . . . 
and enters into the composition of ointments for dressing 
ulcers and sores.' 

M. Rocher saw a great many cases of the plague, in 
Yilnnan and most of them had a fatal result. The proportion 
of the inhabitants affected by it differs in different places ; in 
some spots, where it may be described as simply passing, 
from i to () per cent, were attacked by it ; while in other 
localities the population was completely decimated by this 
awful scourge, whole families even being swept away by it. 
The inhabitants in such districts, driven from hearth and 

2 ]•: 



442 TJIJNG,^ CmXESE. 

home, even leave their crops, and Hee from the tell t'oe to the 
heights. Nor does flight ensure their safety at all times, for 
we are told that even to these upper regions the phigue very 
often follows them, invading the mountains after having 
ravaged the plains, and on these higher levels likewise 
claiming numerous victims, the neighbouring heights near 
the cities also suffering from it. 

The insanitary habits of the Chinese with regard to tlie 
disposal of those who succumb to the disease — so much in 
accord with similar methods prevalent in many parts of the 
Celestial Empire, whore the dead are often of more importance 
than the living — contributes greatly to aggravate the situa- 
tion, so M, Rocher informs us is his opinion ; and we can 
readily believe it when we are told by him that instead of 
burying the bodies of those M'ho have died from the pest, 
the natives arc content to place the coffins in the open air, 
either on the slopes of the hills or on the plains exposed to 
the fierce rays of the tropical sun, with what results it does 
not need even the help of a lively imagination to picture. 

In the years 1871, 1872, and 1873, the plague began in 
May and June, the time of the planting of the rice ; the 
summer season, which is the rainy season, seemed to check its 
activity; but it redoubled its energies and claimed the most of 
its victims during the period extending from harvest till the 
end of the year. 

A strange circumstance noted by ]\[. Rocher is that the 
epidemic at several places in tlie middle and north of the 
province oyerleapt certain spots in its course, or passed them 
by, and left them untouched until several months after or 
even until the following year, when it returned to the places 
thus apparently forgotten. Having attacked nearly all the 
villages in the plains, the plague sought new fields for its 
devastations by ascending to the mountains and committing 
numerous ravages amongst the aborigines. M. Rocher 
gathered, from what he had seen and from the irregular 
manner in which the disease appeared, that it must have 



PLAaCE. '143 

been iiii[)orted iulu these higher hjcalities by the men and 
women who go at certain times of the year to work in the 
plains. More colour appears to be given to this view from 
the fact that it is after the rice has been planted or when the 
harvest is ended that this scourge leaves the low-lying country 
for the heights. 

An interesting sketch map is given in tlie book to 
illustrate the course of the plague in 1871 and 1872 and in 
1872 and 1873. showing the places wliere the most victim3 
succumbed and the spots where the visitation simply passed 
with slight mortality. This map was prepared from official 
sources of information and from other knowledge of the 
matter obtained by M. Rocher. It appears to have followed 
a most curious zigzag route on both occasions in its erratic 
course. ]\[. Rocher also informs us in a note on the map 
that certain cities and principal towns of the west of the 
province have been successively visited by the pest, and in 
some districts it has remained during several years permanent 
amongst the troops which were carrying on operations 
against the rebels.' 

The late IMr. Happcr, Commissioner of Customs at MengtzQ, 
for some years, thus writes about it in 1889 : — 

'In spite of such a favourable climate, Mengtzu, in common with 
other parts of Yunnan, has sufferod annually, for a period of years, 
from the plague which has carried off a number of its 

inhabitants. Indeed the presence of fallow land in the near 
neigbourhood of the city is attributed to the decimation of the fiirming 
population by the pest. '' * A curious fact about the disease 

(in Yiinnan] is, that it never descends to places under 12,000 of 
altitude above the sea, and it rarely scales lieights over 7,200 feet 
high. Strangely enough also, it seldom attacks people sojourning in 
Yiinnan from other provinces, its \ictims being confined to the 
aborigines, and to native born Chinese.' 

With regard to it in 1895, it is stated: — 

The season in Alongtszu in 1S95 'up to July had been very dry, 
but the hrst few days of that month were wet, and shortly afterwards 
the plague began with its wonted virulence. The disease was 
prevalent and fatal during July and August, and remained till 
towards the end of September. Various estimates of the number of 
victims arc given, from 800 to 1,500. The neighouiing towns suffered 
severely, the malady even raging in Lo-lo villages considerably over 
6,000 feet above the sea level. At Iheconunencen.eiit of tlic epidemic the 

2 Jv 2 



HI TJIIAGS CinyLSE. 

Chinese thouj,rht it would disappear with the arrival of the aiitiunn 
(8th August), but the disease prevailed till it had ran its course, which 
requires about three montlis' time, as shown by the records kept 
since the establishment of the Mengtszu Customs in 1889.' 

'The plague appeared in Mengtszii as usual, [in 1897] but 
it was not, apparently, as virulent as in former years and ran a 
shorter course. The first death was reported on 31st May and no 
deaths were reported after 6th August. The estimated mortality from 
plague in the city was from 250 to 300.' 

It still continues at Mcngtzii and it is said to have been 
worse in 1896 than it has ever been before. The deaths 
were then estimated to number thirty per day out of a 
population of 30,000. • Every evening the Taotai has his 
troops drawn up in the courtyard of the Yanicn to fire their 
rifles in all directions to frighten the plague demons.' 

A more recent report (1899) says that it appears to be 
dying out in that neighbourhood, though this has been 
denied. 

The plague has been endemic for many years at Pakhoi, 
a small treaty port situated in the Kwongtung Province and 
on the Gulf of Tonquin ; but takes an epidemic form there 
at intervals of five or ten years or even more frequently. It first 
occurred there in 18G7, recurring at certain intervals; severe 
outbreaks took place in 1877, 1882, and 1891-. In the last 
year it began in '' March, continuing with lessening severity 
till the end of June, but at Lien Chow city, twelve miles 
distant, it lasted till August.' The mortality was estimated 
at Pakhoi in 1882 to be 400 or 500 out of a population of 
25,000, the average a day, when at its height, being ten 
The people were almost panic striken at its commencement 
and fled the town. Rats were attacked, but no other animals. 
There were tliree groups of symptoms of the disease as it 
jnanifested itself respectively in Pakhoi, Yihinan and India. 
In 1894 it was worse in point of mortality than ever before — ■ 
300 or 400 having died at Pakhoi by the middle of May 
when it was abating. Prom Chinese sources it is learned 
that before 1875 only about 100 people had died in any 
year of plague at Pakhoi ; in 1884, 50 or 60; in 1891, about 
40 or 50. We lune already mentioned the mortality in 



PLAai'K. 115 

1882 and 1891. 'Native doctors in Pakhui lu'cscribed what 
they call "cooling remedies," such as rhubarb. It ai»[)ear.s 
they do not treat the bubo locally.' The natives at Pakhoi 
• burn joss-stick and a plant, the sweet flag, which are supposed 
to have prophylactic power as disinfectants.' In 189 !■ they 
bouirht a great deal of foreign disinfecting fluid. ])r. iJeane 
of Pakhoi says of it : — 

'The disease appears in one locality and seems as restricted as 
tlioiigh it were in a bottle. One house may be so bad that anyone 
entering' it will be seized, but the next house quite free from all 
danger.' ' Many perfectly healthy men take the disease and die 
next day.' 'Jt is endemic to a particular locality.' 'In Pakhoi it 
does not appear as an epidemic generally, but only in the most evil- 
smelling quarters.' 

Pakhoi escaped the epidemic in 1895, being practically 
free from it, thougli Kotak, a village near the port, had a 
slight visitation. 

Jt is curable in Pakhoi when brought to the missionary 
hospital as soon as the symptoms appear, but 'nothing can 
be done in the advanced stages.' 

The plague in essentially a disease ' born of filth and 
insanitary surroundings.' The simple drainage systems in 
vogue in Chinese cities are periodically flushed by nature at 
the season of the year when they would prove most dangerous 
to the inhabitants, \\y.., during the hot and sultry summer 
■which is the rainy season in the South of China. So 
eflectively do the torrential rains sweep away the accumula- 
tion of weeks and months that it would be extremely difficult 
for man to compete with them. But their work is stultified 
to a large extent by the crass ignorance of all sanitary 
matters by the Chinese and by their utter indifference to the 
offensive odours which give warning of the dangers to life 
and health around them. No, or but very little, supple- 
mentary aid is given to the cleansing rains, so when a period 
of draught ensues the inhabitants naturally suffer from their 
neglect of the filth which surrounds them and the effluvia 
therefrom, whoso subtle essence permeates the whole at- 
nio«i>hcrc whicli they breathe. Given such conditions, the 



41 G THINGS ClllKKSE. 

plague, if once introduced, runs a wild riot in its congenial 
surroundings, resisting and defying all the puny efforts put 
forth by the natives for its extermination. It revels in its 
filthy haunts; it ensconces itself in the malodorous districts 
and fetid precincts of a Chinese city, toun. or village, where 
filth is never wanting, where the soil is saturated with the 
escaped drainage of centuries, where every street corner is a 
dust bin, Mhere every vacant lot is a dirt heap, where the 
frontage of the houses on the rivers is a rubbish shoot, and 
the banks arc a dumpage-ground for all refuse, Avhere every 
liouse is an ouinhun gatliernm of dust, dirt, and cobwebs; 
where in some cases the kitchen is a urinal and the market 
jjardens are fertilised with ni^lit soil, and where in the midst 
of houses the public latrines scent the whole neighbourhood 
with their filthy odour, where in the early hours of the 
forenoon the scavengers almost render the family streets 
impassable to a foreigner by their necessary offices for the 
houses in which the modern conveniences of Western 
civilisation are unknown; where the most elemontary sanitary 
laws are never dreamt of and utterly ignored by the 
inhabitants, Avhere even the well-to-do are often unclean 
and filthy in their habits, in their clothing, in their sur- 
roundings; where the poorest wear their scanty clothes in 
rags and alive with vermin till it almost drops in pieces from 
them, and where overcrowding prevails to the utter disregard 
of ventilation and fresh air. What wonder then that with 
such a welcome reception ready for it, the plague, like the 
evil spirit in the parable, returns again, not often, however, 
like the evil spirit to find the place swept and garnished, 
but with the same filthy conditions ever present, inviting its 
return. What wonder also that year afl;cr year the visit is 
repeated, 

'Plague is developed under three sets of conditions, (a) local 
conditions affecting" communities, (b) certain relations between persons 
sick of the disease and healthy persons, (c) particular seasonal 
influences, (a) '- The conditions "'which determined and 

favoured" the disease among communities were dwelling upon 
alluvial and marshy soils, notably those found near the shores of the 
Mediterranean, and on the banks of certain great ri\crs, such as the 



rr.Acai:. 117 

Nile, Euphrates, Danube, and Yangisz, a warm and humid 
atmosphere ; low, badly ventilated and crowded houses; great ac- 
cumulation of putrifying animal and vegetable matter in the vicinity 
of dwellings, unwholesome and insufficient food, excessive physical 
and moral misery and neglect of the laws of health as well public as 
private. Although outbreaks of plague occur in marshy soils, it is not 
confined to them, as evidenced by its persistence in Kumaun on the 
Him.alayan mountains and the '■' '■■' outbreak in Hongkong. 
Colvill and Cabiadio ascribe poverty as the influential condition in 
promoting plague, (b) Persons living in the same house are peculiarly 
liable to sufi"er, while those who are only brought into occasional 
contact (as the physician) are rarely affected. " ••' "' '■' (c) 
Seasonal changes. In Mesopotamia, it was noticed that the disease 
became dormant with the setting in of the hot weather, reawakening 
in the winter and gathering force with the advancing spring. In 
Constantinople, on the contrary, the disease was dormant in the colder 
months and active during the hotter. The same was true of the 
great plague of London, the records showing that September was the 
month of greatest prevalence, the disease rising through July and 
August.' 

The pliigue would nppoar to bo one of Nature's scourges 
for the punishment of tlioso who disobey lier laws and for 
instruction in the elementary rules of sanitary science. 
Unfortunately Orientals find the lesson a difficult one to 
learn, and the innocent dwellers amongst them also suffer 
with the guilty. 

We now come to the terrible visitation of the plague in 
Hongkong in 1891'. It was probably introduced into this 
British Colony from the city of Canton, only distant 90 miles, 
between which places there is constant daily communication 
by native boats and foreign steamers, there being 11,090 
passengers every week from Canton: many patients were 
fleeing from the plague in that city where it had began in 
the February of that year. I'he deaths in Canton from it 
during tlie first four months of 1894 were to be numbered 
amongst the tens of thousands. 

Tiie first official knowledge of the plague in Hongkong 
was in May, 1894, though it is suspected that it had been 
present in the Colony for some weeks at least before that, 
though unknown to the authorities, any cases of death from 
it having probably been registered as due to fever or other 
causes, no medical certificate of death being required from 



118 TJIINGS CHINESE. ■ 

the Chinese. The nalive quarters of tlie city presented an 
exceptionally favourable field of operations for it, and it 
spread with great rapidity through the narrow streets, in tlie 
blind alleys, amid tlie crowded tenements, claiming its 
victims from young and old alike whether at home or abroad, 
for several cases occurred of men dropping down dead in the 
streets. 

No rain had fallen for a considerable time and there was 
a scarcity of water in the Colony, an intermittent supply 
being furnished to the inhabitants ; the drainage svstem 
which had been begun without any system in the early days 
of Hongkong and had not kept pace with the requirements 
of the population was in a transition state towards a complete 
renovation. Taipingshan which formed the headquarters of 
the epidemic was built at the foot of a steep mountain side 
and facing the north, the breezes being kept off, as in a great 
part of the city, to a considerable extent by the Peak. The 
filth which had accumulated in the dwellings is almost 
indescribable, and would scarcely be credited by those who do 
not know how the Chinese live ; the soil was saturated and 
reeking with half a century's sullage wa,ter and leakages from 
sewers; while the ground floors, really no misnomer in many 
cases, as whatever flooring tiles there might originally have 
been were often covered by inches of dirt and hardened mud, 
a compost teeming with germs of disease ; underground 
basements were occupied not only by workmen during the 
day as workshops, but were used as sleeping dens at night ; 
the rooms small and ill ventilated enough already were in the 
majority of cases further diminished in size and the atmosp- 
here rendered more foul by being subdivided by low board 
partitions into cubicles, and, not content with this, a horizontal 
division of the apartments was effected by cocklofts, or 
mezzanine floors, and these latter were in some cases even 
partitioned oft" into little tiny rooms, and in some rooms, a 
second cockloft would even be found ; the streets and lanes were 
narrow and intricate ; the houses which had originally beea 
built low and of onlv one or two stories, of late vcars were 



rLAGVK. Ill) 

in many cases being replaced by higher duollings and every 
available piece of ground in the city was being rapidly built 
over, so that what was once a sparsely populated district 
was soon converted into a congested mass of" buildings with 
but little moans of ventilation ; where even in some houses 
an open verandah would offer some chance of fresh air, the 
Chinese would, unless under constaut supervision, quickly 
economise the space by either enclosing the verandah or 
putting up bedrooms in it. 

The enhanced price of land, the raising of rents, the 
attempts to solve the problem how to live upon next to 
nothing — all tended in the one direction, that of rendering the 
native quarters a hot-bed of disease, by favouring the over- 
crowding of houses on the land, and the overcrowding of the 
inhabitants in those houses. Every facility was thus offered 
for the spread of the disease and once fairly started it 
continued to hold its ground all through the summer, the 
number of cases rapidly increasing, the deaths keeping 
almost equal pace with it, until the latter reached the number 
of 70 or 80 per d'tem. ; but by this time half the Chinese 
population had fled the Colony in terror, ill and well, all 
attempting to get away from the plague-infected city, the 
streets presented a very different aspect from the period when 
a full tide of life flosvetl through them, business was seriously 
affected, the foreign trade of the Colony greatly hampered, 
the outlook was dismal in the extreme, many steamers were 
afraid of calling at the port, the law courts were nearly 
deserted, the schools were almost forsaken ; in the foreign 
offices, pots of chloride of lime stood at every desk, or 
disinfectants were freely used about the premises. The 
plague proclamation was in force in Hongkong for nearly 
four months from the 10th i\[ay until the 3rd September, 
1894, and during that time there were 2,547 deaths 
in the Colony from it. How many really died of it 
will, however, never really be known, as many fled the 
Colony, going up to Canton and the neighbouring country 
while ill. 

2 F 



450 THINGS CHINESE. 

As soon as the Government nnd the foreign residents 
realised what ihis dreadful disease that had come amongst 
them was, energetic measures were taken to cope with it. 
A committee was formed to advise and direct operations, 
bodies of the troops, residents, police, and officials formed 
'whitewash brigades,' which went to the infected houses, 
tore down the cocklofts and partitions, cleared out the 
rubblish, and burnt the debris; a burial party was formed in 
Avhich sailors under the leadership of an official did gallant 
service. The greatest praise is due to all we have mentioned 
and to many whom we cannot mention, for with the greatest 
bravery they ran unknown risks for the benefit of their fellow 
men. Several of the soldiers and one officer succumbed to 
the infection — if there be any glory in death itself at all, 
theirs was a more glorious death than on a field of battle. 
Doctors came from different places to assist, and much 
was added to our knowledge of the plague during this 
visitation in Hongkong. A Japanese doctor. Dr. Kitasato 
a student of Koch's in Berlin, first discovered the plague 
bacillus in Hongkong in 1894, and Yersin a French doctor 
afterwards, while another of the Japanese who come to the 
Colony to investigate the disease died from it. 

The efforts of the Europeans wei'c often misunderstood 
by the ignorant Chinese, and the strong hand of the law 
was required to enforce obedience, in fact many of the natives 
had fled from the Colony in consequence of the measures taken 
to cope with and overcome the plague. 

Concerning infection from this much dreaded disease, 
Dr. Lowson says that it is stated that • skin to skin infection 
is impossible unless the one to be infected has some wound 
and the infecter's skin has been soiled by faeces, blood, or 
the contents of buboes,' but there are sufficient other 
methods of infection known, or suspected, to render the 
horrible dread the Chinese had of it well founded. The 
period of incubation may extend to nine days, though in the 
case of rats it is two or three. This would therefore seem to 
furnish a reason why these rodents are affected before human 



rLAGVE. 451 

beings, besides the idea already propounded that being near 
the ground tlicy first receive the infection. With regard to 
human beings this period of incubation is sometimes even 
shorter than nine days. 

In tlie first commonccment of the phigue tlie symptoms 
may be varied, an anxious terrified expression is common 
and fever and buboes are also signs, but not of course 
infallible, the temperature as a rule rises gradually "and in 
most severe cases the tendency is for the temperature to keep 
about the same level for some time ' ; but we cannot go into 
a full report of the symptoms. Those who are interested in 
them will find them fully described in Dr. Lowson's valuable 
paper. The death rate amongst those attacked in Hongkong 
in 189J' was as follows : — 

Chinese 93.4 per cent. 

Indians 77 „ 

Japanese 60 

Eurasians 100 

Europeans 18.2 „ 

The Chinese lacked efficient medical attendance — in 
many cases they would have nothing to do with foreign 
doctors, while Europeans called in properly trained physicians 
and that, in most cases, right early. At the same time tliere 
is no doubt that the European constitution was better able 
to withstand this fearful disease. Judged by the percentage 
of deaths in those attacked, the Eurasians would appear to 
have the Avorse constitutions of all. 

' About ten acres of the most densely populated part of 
the city was closed by the Government at the height of the 
epidemic and the inhabitants turned out of their dwellings and 
housed elsewhere. The streets M'ere walled up and constables 
were Rationed to prevent egress to the '•'forbidden city."' 
In this quarter of the city, Taipingshan, nearly every house 
had plague in it and most of the houses were unfit for 
habitation. The Government resumed all the land and houses 
in this portion of the city, giving compensation to the owners ; 

2 1" 2 



452 THINGS CHINESE. 

the wretched chvellings were eventually pulled down, and 
the streets are now laid out on an im])roved plan. 

During the next two years the plague played havoc in 
the neighbourhood of Canton, Hongkong and Macao, now 
visiting, during tlic hot months of the year, one part of the 
country and now another. Hongkong escaped in 1895, 
except for a few sporadic cases, amounting to some 44 in 
number, but Macao was visited by a severe epidemic of it in 
April and May 1895. The city of Canton was reported to 
be practically fiee in 1895. 

In Canton, when the plague was raging in 1894, a 
reward was offered for the bodies of rats that had died from 
it, and in consequence 21,000 were collected. The plague 
during these last few years also visited Amoy, Swatow, and 
other places in the south-eastern part of China, reaching as 
far north even as Shanghai, where a few cases occurred. 

A recurrence of the bubonic plague took place in 
Hongkong in 1890. It commenced early in the year : — 

'The disease was at its worst stage in April and May and was 
not finally stamped out till the end of September. The total number 
of cases brought to notice was 1,204, of which 1,097 ended fatally. 
Europeans attacked numbered fifteen, of whcm seven, including two 
soldiers and one Inspector of Nuisances, succumbed to the disease. 
© -:;> c Qpg of the two sisters who weie engaged in nursing at the 
Plague Hospital was also attacked by the disease but fortunately 
recovered. The largest number of fresh cases in one week was loo, 
from the 23rd to 30th May, and the greatest number of deaths was 
2>y, for the week ending 9th May.' 

But it has spread so over difiercnt places in China that 
to give an accurate and full account of its visitations would 
require more space than we have at our disposal, several hun- 
dreds are said to have died of it in Kaulung City in 1898, 

The plague also visited Formosa in 1896; and con- 
siderable alarm >vas caused in 181)6 and 1897 by a serious out- 
break of it in Bombay and elsewhere in India. A new jAase of 
it in Bombay was that pigeons were attacked by a disease 
which presented points of resemblance to the plague, and 
died in large numbers. In this connection the following 
extract from the ' Bombay Gazette,' as published in the 



PLAGUE. 1.53 

London "Daily Chronicle' of the lith January, 181)7, proves 

of more than passing interest : — 

'Mr. Hankin has set liiiusclf to investigate an important brancli 
of the subject — the means by which tlie pest becomes diffused, and is 
brought in contact with the population which becomes subject to its 
ravages. The time has not come to enter into details, but it is 
permissible to state that there is evidence proving beyond all doubt 
that rats, living and dead, and ants play a large part in diffusing the 
disease and establishing it in buildings which become in their turn 
centres of infection. Rats which have the plague deposit the germ of 
the disease on the floors over which they pass. When they die their 
bodies are eaten by ants, which absorb the germs and deposit them 
in cracks and crevices, especially when there is any lurking moisture. 
Ants require water, and consequently they frequent the neighbourhood 
of taps and sinks. The bacilli have been found in ants a fortnight 
after they received them from preying on dead rats. A house near 
Dhobie Talao, in which two deaths took place, was searched for dead 
rats. Their bodies were dug out and the holes closed up. The man 
employed on that work took the plague. Some days afterwards Mr. 
Hankin succeeded in picking out fiom crevices ants which were found 
to have the bacilli. Some of the surface of the ground near the sink 
had bacilli, though it had been flushed with phenyle the day before. 
The bacilii were doubtless deposited by the ants after the phenyle had 
become dry. It is not to be supposed that ants have any monopoly 
in the diffusion of bacilli. Insects which have never been held in 
such general esteem for industry and self-help have unquestionably 
their share in that deadly work. But keeping in view the proved fact 
that rats get the plague and die of it in large numbers, that their dead 
bodies under the floors and among the rafters of old buildings are 
sources of infection, intensified by the action of myriads of ants, Mr. 
Hankin has come to the conclusion that the segregation of human 
beings who get the disease can have but a very small effect in pre- 
venting the spread of the disease. The danger lurks in the house, 
and he recommends that the other inmates should be removed whether, 
the patient elects to stay there or not. In the Himalayas and in all 
countries the segregation of the healthy has been the one effective 
means of stopping the spread of the plague.' 

Monkeys and squirrels are also affected by plague. 

With regard to the plague amongst the lo^A'er animals, 

Dr. Manson says : — 

' It seems to me that they have to be reckoned with in the future, 
more thnn they have been in the past, in devising schemes of 
quarantine, and in attempts at stamping out the deseasc in already 
infected localities. It seems to me that the wholesale destruction of 
domestic vermin should go hand in hand with the isolation of plague- 
stricken patients.' 

' In an article on the plague in the A;i;ii!//'^ dc Pliistilide Piistciir, 
Ur. Simond says that botli amongst rats and men the infection is 
carried by fleas, which arc the chief instrument in the propagation of 
the disease.' 



151 TIILXGS CHINESE. 

])r. Yersin, a French physician wlio went to Hongkong 
in 1894 to study the plague has since made a series of experi- 
ments with the plague bacillus which has resulted in his 
discovering what he believes to be a cure for the plague. By 
the injection of the serum he prepared, lie cured one case in 
Canton ; of twenty-three cases in Amoy, fifteen were cured, two 
died and of the remaining six cases he unfortunately left 
before a cure was effected, though he had every hope that it 
Avas in progress. It takes twenty-four hours to effect a cure 
and it must be taken at once as soon as the symptoms 
develop. ' Haffkine practised during tlie Bombay epidemic 
a system of proplylactic inoculation/ the figures were en- 
couraging in 1897 ; in 1899 the accounts are very encouraging. 

' Inoculation against plague bids fair to become universal in 
India; one town of a population of about 40,000 having only about 
5,000 uninoculated, while many have been inoculated twice. The 
results justify the practice, a report for one week in September [1898] 
showing only 69 attacks among 32,000 inoculated persons, and 417 
attacks among 8,500 uninoculated.' 

The bubonic plague is ' known in India by various 
names. In the Bombay Presidency it is called "Pali plague" 
because it was very rife in Pali in 1836.' As a general rule 
the following may bo said to be fairly demonstrated by 
experience, namely 'that the attacks of the plague fail upon 
subjects living wholesome lives under good sanitary con- 
ditions and succeed * * upon those living in unhealthy 
surroundings or whose system has been weakened by otlier 
disease.' As a rule doctors seem to escape, though not 
always. It is those who are constantly with patients that are 
more liable, though the immunity that nurses and others 
usually enjoy seems wonderful, a few cases have occurred 
of even these taking it. 

In some epidemics of plague it is said that patches are 
seen on the surface of the body after death, hence one name 
it formerly got was that of the Black Death. 

In the epidemic of 1898 in Hongkong there were 1315 
cases, 75 of which were non-Chinese ; 2G of these latter being 
Europeans, two of the nurses at the hospital being victims of 



PLAGUE. 155 

this frightful disease. Thougli a less severe epidemic than 
that of 1894, the cases in some instances were more severe. 
65'3 per cent of non-Chinese who took it died; whereas 
amongst tlie Chinese the mortality reached the liigli figure of 
896 per cent. Dr. Clarke, the " Medical Officer of Health 
in Hongkong, in his report makes tlie following interesting 
statement : — 

'I am strongly inclined to apply tentatively Sanarelli's theory 
concerning the bacillus of Yellow Fever, namely, that the vitality of 
the bacillus, outside the living bodies of men and animals, depends 
largely upon the co-existence of vegetable moulds by which it is 
nourished, to the infective material of this disease also. It is already 
well known that a moist atmosphere, defective ventilation, a moderate 
amount of heat, and the absence of sunlight are the most favourable 
conditions for the development of the Bubonic Fever bacillus, while 
they are the conditions which encourage the free growth of the 
vegetable moulds, and it is not unreasonable therefore to surmise that 
this property of symbiosis, which has been observed by Metchinkoff 
in connection with the bacillus of cholera, may have not a little to do 
with the persistence of the bacillus of Bubonic Fever in damp and ill- 
ventilated dwellings.' 

The plague recurred again in Hongkong in 1899, the 
mortality gradually rising to some forty or fifty deaths in the 
course of a week in the beginning of May, one European 
being attacked by it, while the following account of it at 
about the same period of the year shows the ravages it Avas 
committing in the neighbourhood of Canton : — 

' The plague is more than recrudescent in many of the towns and 
villages of the delta. In Canton and Fatshan, it is reported as "bad," 
but not so bad as in some of the inland cities. 

The city of, San Ning might correctly be named, at present, 
" The City of Death.'' The plague is ravaging with special virulence, 
and carrying off its victims in large numbers. Siiops and dwelling 
houses are closed, and their inhabitants have fled into the country, 
carrying the infection with them. Business is. for the present, 
paralysed. The streets, meanwhile, are reeking in filth and all drains 
choked with rubbish. Behold the remedy employed I In one street, 
I observed no less than three matsheds erected, in which were seated, 
in calm ccmplaisancy many idols which are implored to exert their 
power to stem and turn back the tide of death Moreover, over 
almost every door are hung branches of cactus, or other thorny 
shrubs, also a piece of fine netting, and a bag of small cockle shells. 
It is believed that the malignant devils cannot well avoid all these 
obstacles and enter the house ! Thev iiidv be frightened bv the 



456 THINGS CJl/NESA\ 

rattling of the shells, as boys used to frighten birds from the corn- 
fields by the rattle of a tin pan. If the devils yet attempt to enter, 
they must pass through the mass of thorns, but can scarcely avoid 
the small netting. 

It is almost past belief that men's minds are so dark, minds, 
too, that have spent years in America or Australia. "\'ct, there it is. 
It is altogether tragic to see such things, and to look behind and 
contemplate the sorrow, bereavement, and blank despair that hover 
over the houses and paralyse the hearts of those who crouch in 
terror within. One may well ask oneself the question, can such 
things exist ? Furthermore can it be possible that those enshrouded in 
such mental darkness can dare to assert, and venture to dream, that 
they stand on an equality with the people of the West .'' In the interests 
of humanity, there is every reason why all agencies, religious, 
educational, and commercial should continue their propaganda, and 
endeavour to penetrate and dissipate this terrible gloom.' 

The plague was also at Kwang Chow Wan, the new 
French port in the Kwangtung province, in April or ]\[ay 
1899: it was prevalent among the natives; one European 
soldier died of it and another wlio was attacked with it. was 
cured by the Yersin serum. 

'Speaking of the persistence of the contagion of the plague 
microbe, which is causing so much anxiety in Austria and Germany, 
the journal La Suisse, Geneva, cites a characteristic case. "In 1660 
the Dutch city of Haarlem was devastated by the plague. Whole 
families perished, among them a family by the name of Cloux, whose 
various members were buried in the Haarlem Church. Thirty or forty 
years ago it was found that the masonry of the tomb was out of 
repair, and the vault was entirely rebuilt. The masons in charge of 
the work descended into the vault and remained there during more 
than a day. Now although more than two centuries had passed since 
the epidemic, all these workmen were attacked with the infectious 
bubo [characteristic glandular swelling] of the plague and had to 
undergo long treatment at the hospital. Nevertheless, there were no 
symptoms of the plague proper, and all recovered." ' 

Booliii recommended. — The local ]"aper.s published in Hongkong 
contain, during the prevalence of the plague, many interesting particulars 
about it. Trever's ' Diseases of India,' Article on Plague in Eneyclopa?dia 
Britannica.' Davidson's ' Tropical Medicine.' An article in the ' London 
and China Express,' as (luoted in the ' Hongkong Telezraph " of Dth July, 
181)5. Dr. Manson's ' Eeport on the Health of Anioy ' for the half year, 
ending 31st March, 1878, in the 'Medical Reports of the Imperial Maritime 
(Justoms,' 1.5th issue. ' Notes of an Ei)ideniie Disease observed in I'akhoi.' 
by J. H.Lowry, L.R.C.P. Ed., L.Pv.C.S. Ed., in 'Medical Reports of the 
Imperial Maritime Customs, 24th issue, for the half year ending 30th 
September, 1S82. 'The Imperial Maritime Customs Decennial Reports' 
pp. (ioi and ()71. M. Rocher's 'Yunnan.' Dr. James Lowson's Report on 'The 
Epidemic uf Bubonic Plague in Hongkong, 1894,' published in the 
'Hongkong Government Gazette.' 'Report on the Outbreak of Bubonic 
plague in Hongkong to the Jnternational Congress of Hygiene and 



POETRY. 457 

Demography, held at Buda-Pest, 1894.' by Dr. P. B. C. Ayers, C.M.G., 
Colonial Surgeon, Hongkong, and Dr. James Lo\v.-<on, M.B., 'Acting 
Superintendent, Government Civil Hospital. H.E. Sir Wm. Robinson's 
speech reported in the ' Hongkong Weekly i'ress,' 9th Dec, ISidi. ' Tropical 
Diseases : A Manual of the Diseases of Warm Climates,' by P. Maiison, 
M.D., L.L.D., from which wc have made large e.vtracts. Also see 'Annual 
Reports by the Medical Ofticer of Health for Hongkong-' for years 1897 and 
1 898. 

POETRY.~The East is the land of poetry. Here 
Nature is found in lier happiest moods : she hivishes all the 
tints of her wonderful palette on her gorgeous sunrises and 
sunsets ; she instals her electric lights — the bright stars in 
the blue depths of the unfathomable sky — and so pure is the 
atmosphere, that one can see beyond their clear shining into 
the illimitable space ; her full-orbed moon floods the whole 
landscape with a silvery light but seldom seen in the West; 
the sun glows with such an intense heat, that, aided by the 
tropical showers, the earth is clad with a hot-house growth 
of plants and shrubs ; nor are her grander moods unrevealed 
to man, for towering crag and rugged mountain hem in 
the meandering river, and the soft lights of sunset play 
amidst their gloomy rocks and sheltered ravines, while the 
noon-day clouds cast passing shadows on the lovely scene; 
anon, amidst the thunder of the storm and the vivid flashes 
of the lightning, the God of Nature reveals Himself, while 
all the latent forces of destruction seem let loose in the how- 
ling, whistling wind, the dashing wave, and the fierce 
battling of the elements of the dreaded typhoon. 

The Chinese have been the worshippers of nature for 
centuries and millenniums, both in the literal and figurative 
sense of the term : long before we in the West awoke to her 
wild charms and sylvan beauties, ages before the ponderous 
Dr. Johnson saw nothing to admire in the wild Hebrides and 
the rugged mountains of Scotia, the Chinese had sung the 
praises of similar scenes in their native land ; ' Chinese poets 
manifested a passionate love of nature thousands of years 
before Scott or Wordsworth.' A suggestion, a reference, a 
line, or a word points to some aspect of nature, such as — 

' The white clouds fly across the scene,' 
to find its response in the next line of— 

•The distant hills are clothed in green,' 

2 G 



458 THINGS CHINESE. 

while others will revel in some descriptive piece of solitary 
scenes. 

But, unfortunately, much Chinese poetry is incapable of 
translation: it loses its essence in the transfer into another 
and barbarian speech, and becomes tame prose, and prosy at 
the best. As the wild flowers which adorn the hill-sides in 
this land, with their bright pinks and rich crimsons, soberer 
mauves and clear pure whites, when gathered by the 
enthusiastic botanist and treated by his careful hands with 
the greatest tenderness, fade and wither, lose their fresh 
bloom and bright tints, turn to a uniform brown and black, 
and smell musty and dry ; so the flowers of Chinese poetry 
lose their freshness and beauty — the sparkle of wit and the 
point of allusion are lost to unappreciative Western ears, the 
rhyme and rhythm are gone, and they are interesting alone 
to the sinologue's ear. Occasionally, however, by a happy 
chance, the brightness and sparkle of a ballad or song are 
retained, or even improved upon, as in Stent's translations. 

The Chinese language lends itself readily to the poetic 
art — harsh consonantal sounds are wanting, and the com- 
bination of consonants and vowels is often musical. Though 
largely monosyllabic, the diphthongs give a somewhat 
dissyllabic character to many of the words. The cadence 
and modulation required are to be found in the tones of the 
Chinese language, and every word takes the place occupied 
by a metrical foot in our Western poetry. 

'In the hands of an accomplished writer, the Chinese language 
is capable of a condensed picturesqueness and vigour such as can be 
rendered into no foreign languasje less ideographic in its mode of 
writing unless by means of wordy paraphrases. Each character in 
its (often numerous) component parts carries a wealth of imagery to 
the sense, and whole series of metaphors are embodied in a single 
epithet. A language of this kind lends itself especially to the 
description of the scenery, and the most superficial analysis of Chinese 
poetry reveals the fact that the productions which are most applauded 
in this branch of literature consist simply of elaborate word-painting 
whose beauty resides rather in the medium of expression than in the 
author's thought. Hence it happens that when odes renowned for 
centuries among Chinese readers are transposed into the naked 



rOKTUY. 159 

languages of Europe, it is found that their chaim has vanished, as 
the petals of a flower arc dropped from the insignificant and sober- 
coloured fruit.' 

As Giles puts it, tlicy are : — 

'Strains that to alien harps can ne'er belong, 
Thy gems shine purer in their native bed.' 

One of the classical works of the Chinese, the Shi-king, 
(B. C. 500) is a collection of ancient songs, &c. ' The bulk 
of these curious vestiges of antiquity '^ * do not rise 
beyond the most primitive simplicity, and their style and 
language, witliout the minute commentary, -would often be 
unintelligible.' 

Here is one translated by Dr. Martin : — ■ 

A speck upon your ivory fan 
You soon may wipe away ; 
But stains upon the heart or tongue 
Remain, alas I for aye. 

Another put into English verse by Mr. Jennings : — 

BRIDAL SONG. 

Ho, graceful little peach tree 
Brightly thy blossoms bloom ! 
Go, maiden, to thy husband ; 
Adorn his hall, his room. 

Ho, graceful little peach tree 
Thy fruit abundant fall 1 
Go, maiden to thy husband ; 
Adorn his room, his hall. 

Ho, graceful little peach tree, 
With foliage far and wide ! 
Go, maiden, to thy husband 
His household well to guide. 

The reader is referred for further specimens of these 
300 odes to tlie Shi King, or Book of Odes, itself. It has 
been well said by Professor von der Gabelentz ' that in this 
whole collection of Odes * * * there is not a line to be 
found which may not be read aloud without any hesitation 
in the most prudish society.' 

Epics and pastorals are not found in Chinese poetry ; 
but almost every other description is to be seen, as well as 
poetic effusions of a character unknown in the West, such as 
proclamations by the Magistrates in rhyme. 

2 G 2 



460 THINGS CHINESE. 

It is very extraordinary to find an Edward Allaii Poe 
in Chinese literature, B.C. 200. The Chinese prototype 
was an eminent statesman, Kia Yi by name, who was alsi 
* no mean poet ' 

A CHINESE 'RAVEN.' 

THE FU-NIAO, OR BIRD OF FATE. 
'Twas in the month of chill November, 
As I can very well remember 
In dismal, gloomy, crumbling halls, 
Betwixt moss-covered, reeking walls, 
An exiled poet lay^ 

On his bed of straw reclining, 
Half despairing, half repining ; 
When athwart the window sill. 
Flew in a bird of omen ill. 
And seemed inclined to stay. 

To my book of occult learning. 
Suddenly I thought of turning. 
All the mystery to know, 
Of that shameless owl or crow, 
That would not go away. 

'' Wherever such a bird shall enter, 
'^Tis sure some power above has sent her, 
(So said the mystic book) to show 

The human dweller forth must go," • 

But where it did not say. 

Then anxiously the bird addressing. 
And my ignorance confessing, 
"Gentle bird, in mercy deign 
The will of Fate to me explain. 
Where is my future way ? " 

It raised its head as if 'twere seeking 
To ansvver mc by simply speaking. 
Then iolded up its sable wing, 
Nor did it utter anything. 
But breathed a " Well-a-day I "' 

More eloquent than any diction, 
That simple sigh produced conviction. 
Furnishing to me the key 
Of the a,wful mystery 
That on my spirit lay. 

" Forture's wheel is ever turning, 
To human eye there's no discerning 
Weal or woe in any state ; 
Wisdom is to bide your fate ;" 
This is what it seemed to say ; 
By that simple "Well-a-day." 



POETRY. 461 

A poem of great repute among native scholars is 'The 
Dissipation of Sorrows,' written by Yuh Yuen (B.C. 150), 
whose untimely end is commemorated by the annual Dragon 
Boat Festival (Sec Article under that heading). 

Here is a husbandman's song as rendered by Mr. Giles : — 

Work, work — from the rising sun 

Till sunset comes and the day is down 

I plough tlie sod 

And harrow the clod, 
And meat and drink both come to me 
So what care I for the powers that be. 

Here is a little ode addressed by 'Su Wu to his wife on 
setting out on an embassy to the Court of the Grand Khan of 
Tartary,' 100 B.C. The English is from the rendering by 
Dr. Martin: — 

Twin trees whose boughs together twine, 
Two birds that guard one nest. 
We'll soon be far asunder torn, 
As sunrise from the West. 

Hearts knit in childhood's innocence, 
Long bound in Hymen's ties : 
One goes to distant battle-fields, 
One sits at home and sighs. 

Like carrier bird, though seas divide 
I'll seek my lonely mate ; 
But if afar I find a grave. 
You'll mourn my hapless fate. 

To us the future's all unknown, 

In memory seek relief; 

Come, touch the cords you know so well. 

And let them soothe our grief. 

Poetry flourished most in the T"ang dynasty, (A.D. 620-907) 
in the ninth and tenth centuries, which have been described as 
the Augustan age in China of poetry and letters. 'The collected 
poems of the * * * T'ang dynasty have been published 
by Imperial authority in nine hundred volumes.' Among 
the most celebrated poets of this time is Li Tai-po, (A.D. 720) 
an anacreontic poet whose adventures are famous, as well as 
his sonnets. His works were published in thirty volumes. 
He attained high government distinction, but was drowned, 
fallinar overboard from a boat Avhen under the influence of 



462 THINGS CHINESE. 

his favourite wines. He is thus described by one writer: 
' the best known of China's countless host of lyric poets, 
famous for his exquisite imagery, his wealth of words, his 
telling allusions to the past, and for the musical cadence of 
his verse.' 

Dr. Edkins describes Li Tai-po's characteristics as a poet, 
as follows : — 

' This poet is fond of deep passion, fear and patlios. All his 
power is devoted to the production of these sentiments in the readers' 
mind. He loves quick transitions, and one touch is enough for 
one thought. Another thought crowds after it, and then a third, 
« c- c- Burns collected old songs, and infused them with the fire 
of his genius. That class of Western poets, of whom Burns is a 
shining example, would be the fit companions of Li Tai-po, whose 
poems are often filled up with lines gathered from the wide range 
of early-song literature. * Li Tai-po had a consciousness 

of power, and this made him careless in regard to rules. He uses 
short lines whenever he pleases, and it is often hard to punctuate 
his lines. His nation admires him so much, that when he is irregular 
in the choice of his words and the length of his lines, they still praise 
him. His genius was intuitive. No one took less time than he to 
write. No one made such leaps from one subject to another as he 
did. This recklessness was a great aid to him, because he did not 
need to take time to polish his style and smooth down his roughnesses. 
He vaulted over difficulties and expected his reader to follow him, 
without asking : Why this leap ? or, Where is my master intending to 
go ? He left the reader to fill the gap, and he himself always wrote 
brilliant sentences, and dealt in the pathetic and the sublime. All 
faults are readily forgiven if a writer can do this, for there is nothing 
that readers so much delight in as in having the tender sentim.ents of 
the heart stirred fi'om their depths. Our poet wrote verses as he 
travelled, and his poems are a running comment on his visits to 
various localities in his native country.' The mrainer in which he 
was able ' to find in the rounds of nature the interpreter of his thoughts, 
and to throw himself into nature is proof of his higli character 

as a poet. Here he seems to resemble Wordsworth, who, with 
Coleridge, passionately loved every wild and sublime scene in nature, 
but was not less moved by quiet landscapes. His heart was open to 
every suggestion that could be made to spring from wheat field, grove, 
or sunset glory. * '- '■' But he greatly exceeds Wordsworth in 
popularity, having a whole nation at his feet, and there is to the 
present time no diminution of his fame.' 

Of him, it has been said that he was ' without doubt the 
greatest of Chinese lyric poets.' One of the emperors said 
of him that ' a god had become incarnate in his person.' 



POETRY. 463 

We give a few specimens of Li Tiii-po put into English, 
first tin impromptu which shows liis early genius, being 
produced at the age of ten : — 

TO A FIREFLY. 

Unin cannot rinpneh thy lantern's li.^ht, 
Wind makes it shine more briglitly iirisht ; 
Oil wiiy not tiy to heaven afar, 
Anil twinkle near the moon — a star.' 

A VISIT TO THE OLEAR COLD FOUNTAIN. 
Alas, tliat day shonld lose itself in night 1 
1 love this fount so clear, so passing cool : 
The western "low pursues its waters' tlow : 
The wavelets symb<ilise my silent thoughts, 
And murmur forth a wordless hymn of prai.se. 
I watch the moon among the clouds so ^I'and, 
The wavinji' pines, athwart the sky so tall 
Anon do blend their rusting- with my song. 

A VI.SIT TO THE RAPIDS OF TPIE WHITE RIVER. 
I cross the stream just as it starts to life. 
From man and all his deeds afar I roam. 
Tlie isles are clad in nature's living hues, 
And set in scenes of sweetest beauty rare. 
The deep-blue sky is mirrored in the stream, 
Whose broad expanse reflects the passing clouds. 
I watch them as they sail away to sea, 
Jly leisured mind next wanders where the stream. 
Is full of fish that dart adown its course, 
The .setting sun doth end my day-long songs, 
By silv'ry moon-lit rays I hie nie home 
To where my humble cot a-field doth lie. 

THE POET. 
You ask wliat my soul does away in the sky, 
I inwardly smile, but I cannot reply ; 
Like tlie peach-blossom carried away by the stream, 
1 soar to a world of which you cannot dream. 

Here is a short lyric translated by Dr. Martin which he 
describes as 'characterised by simplicity of expression and 
naturalness of sentiment, rather than by strength and 
elevation.' : — 

A SOLDIER^S WIFE TO HKR HL'SHAND. 

'Twas many a year ago, 
How I recall the clay ! 
When you, my own true love, 
Came first with me to play. 
A little child was 1 ; 
My head a mass of curls ; 
I gathered daisies sweet. 
Along with other girb. 



4-64 THINGS CHINESE. 

You rode a bamboo horse, 
And deemed yourself a knight, 
With ^per helm and shield 
And wooden sword bedight. 

Thus we together grew. 
And we together played — 
Yourself a giddy boy, 
And I a thoughtless maid. 

At fourteen I was wed ; 
And, if one called my name, 
As quick as lightning flash 
The crimson blushes came. 

'Twas not till we had passed 
A year of married life 
My heart was knit to yours, 
In joy to be your wife. 

Another year, alas ! 
And you had joined your chief; 
While I was left at home, 
In solitary grief. 

When victory crowns your arms, 
And I your triumph learn. 
What bliss for me to fly 
To welcome your return. 

Tu Fu (A.D. 712-770) was another poet of the T'ang, 
and one of some distinction, who has been described as ' one 
of China's greatest men in poetic genius.' The Chinese rank 
him Sis second only to Li Tai-po.' • He lived in the eighth 
century, dying of hunger in A.D. 768 * * in a temple in 
which he had been compelled to take refuge.' We give some 
specimens of Tu Fu's poetry : — 

IN ABSENCE. 

White gleam the gulls across the darkling tide, 

On the green hills the red flowers seem to burn ; 

Alas ! I see another spring has died 

When will it come — the day of my return ? 

The Chinaman's ardent desire to return to his native 
land, dead or alive, though due to a very great extent to 
the cult of ancestral worship and all the customs that group 
themselves round this central idea, setting and crystallising 
into a rigid system through the course of long ages — 
though his wish to return is apparently almost entirely based 
on this ; mav it not be that underneath the frost of ice-bound 



POETHY. 1()5 

custom tliereflous the natural love of home which the ordinary 
celestial is unable to express, but wliich wells up from the 
heart of the poet ? Otlier selections might be made which 
express this longing in stronger language than the above. 
THE DESERTED WIFE. 

Onoe fair beyond thf> f:iirpst. dnnio on onrth, 
Witliiii the rnoiiiitain (U-11 1 live perdue ; 
And scion of a \irtiions house I am, 
Though shrubs and trees are now my sole support. 
Our troubh's came within the walls amain : 
Not long a^o my brothers met their end. 
Their rank was high. Alas ! it mattered not ; 
' For e'en their stitt'. cold clay was lost to us. 
I care not for the present age, no charms 
It hath for me. Life tiiekers like a wick : 
A passing breath blows all our joys away. 
A new fair wile, as fair as clearest ja.de. 
Is now my husband's love in ])lace of ine. 
The libertine hath turned away from me. 
Th' acacia knows the hour to close its leaves, 
The turtle-dove without its mate doth pine ; 
He oidy sees the new wife's witching smile. 
He heeds not how his former love doth weep. 
Upon the mountain top the rill is clear ; 
But at its foot the stream is muddy, thick. 
My maids go out to sell my lustrous pearls : 
And with a wisp they mend the patched roof, 
I pluck the wayside flowers, but wear them not ; 
And tlieu I gather cones from oft' the firs. 
My broidered sleeve is thin for gusty winds, 
As morn and eve I lean my pensive form 
Against the tall bamboos with drooping sprays. 

Another name to be mentioned is that of Han Yii 

(A.D. 768-821') 'foremost among the statesmen, philosophers, 

and poets of the T'ang dynasty, and one of the most 

venerated names in Chinese literature.' From his pen are 

the following : — 

THE WOUNDED FALCON. 
Within a ditch beyond my wall 
I saw a falcon headlong fall. 
Bedaubed with mud and racked with pain, 
It beat its wings to rise, in vain ; 
While little boys threw tiles and stones, 
Eager to break the wretch's bones. 
O bird, mcthinks thy life of late 
Hath amply justified this fate ! 
Thy sole delight to kill and steal. 
And then exultingly to wheel 
Now sailing in the clear blue sky, 
Now on the wild gale sweeping by, 

2 II 



4GG THINGS GIUNESE. 

Scorning thy kind of less degree 
As all unfit to mate with thee. 

J^ut niarlc how fortune's wheel goes round ; 
A pellet lays thee on the ground, 
Sore stricken at some vital part,— 
And where is then thy pride of heart ? 

What's this to me ? — I could not bear 
To see the fallen one lying there. 
I begged its life, and from the brook 
Water to wash its wounds 1 took. 
Fed it with bits of fish l)y day, 
At night from foxes kept away. 
My care I knew would naught avail 
For gratitude, that empty tale. 
And so this bird would crouch and hide 
Till want its stimulus applied ; 
And I, with no reward to hope, 
Allowed its callousness full scope. 

Last eve the bird showed signs of rage, 
With health renewed, and beat its cage. 
To-day it forced a passage through, 
And took its leave, without adieu. 

Good luck hath saved thee, not desert ; 
Beware, O bird, of further hurt ; 
Beware the archer's deadly tools I — 
'Tis hard to escape the shafts of fools— 
Nor e'er forget the chastening ditch 
That found thee poor, and left thee rich. 

HUMANITY. 

Oh spare the busy morning fly I 

Spare the mosquitoes of the night ! 
And if their wicked trade they ply 

Let a partition stop their flight. 

Their span is brief from birth to death ; 

Like you they bite their little day ; 
And then with autumn's earliest breath, 

Like you too they arc swept away. 

Here is one specimen ^^•llicll shows that the poetic taste 

is present in wliat seems to many a Westerner the unpoetic 

Chinese. 

TASTE. 

The landscape which the poet loves is that of early May, 
When budding greenness half concealed enwraps each 

willow spray. 
That beautiful embroidery the days of summer yield, 
Appeals to every bumpkin who may take his walk afield. 

Yang Chu Yuan. 

(8th & 9th Cent. A-D.; 



Another famous poet was Su TLUig-[)o, (A.D. 103(j — 1 101) 
of the Sung dynasty, which lias been described as the 
Elizabethan age of Chinese letters. His poems are contained 
in one hundred and fifteen volumes. He was * an official of 
remarkable talents, a statesman, poet, essayist, and man of 
letters,' who spent many of his latter years under a cloud, being 
banished to the south of the empire, a punishment he partly 
brought on himself, owing to his satire. Of him it has 
been written that 'under his hands, the language of which 
China is so proud, may be said to have reached perfection of 
finish, of art concealed. In subtlety of reasoning, in the lucid 
expression of abstractions, such as in English too often elude 
the faculty of the tongue, Su Tung-po is an unrivalled master.' 
We give also a few specimens of Su Tung-po's poetry. The 
first we extract from ' Gems of Chinese Literature.' 
THE SONG OF THE CRANES. 

Away ! away ' J\Iy birds, fly westwards now, 

To wheel on high and gaze on all below ; 

To swoop together, pinions closed, to earth ; 

To soar aloft once more among the clouds ; 

To wander all day long in sedgy vale ; 

To gather duckweed in the stony marsh. 

Come back I Come back I Beneath the lengthening shades, 

Your serge-clad master stands, guitar in hand. 

'Tis he that feeds you from his slender store : 

Come back ! Come back ! Nor linger in the west. 

Su Tung-po's eulogies of departed worthies are fine 

specimens of writing. He ' never failed to clothe liis thoughts 

in beautiful language,' ' with great facility he collects all the 

meritorious deeds of his lieroes, and places them in a very 

strong light ; he then makes some allusion to the ages long 

gone by, and traces their resemblances to celebrated personages 

concluding with Jiis own panegyrics. These eloquent pieces 

were not only printed but also engraved on solid stone.' We 

give one of these eulogistic inscriptions. 

IN MEMORIAM : HAN WEN KUNG.- 

High mounted on the dragon's back he rode 
Alofl to where the da/./?iing cloudlands lie ; 
The glory of the sky he grasped an)aiii ; 
The splendour of the stars, his sparkling robe. 



Th'j same as Han Yii. 

2 Ji 2 



4(J8 TJlLWS t'lIlAESE. 

The zephyrs' breath him gently wafted on 
From earth's domain up to the throne of God. 
On earth his practised hand swept off the chaff, 
The husks which hid the grains of truth from sight. 
He roamed the wide would o'er from pole to pole, 
From cast to west his rays so bright were shed, 
And nature's darkness clothed upon with I'ght. 
The third amidst the three of genius great,* 
His rivals strove in vain to reach his height. 
And panted, dazzled by his glory's glare. 
Buddha was cursed by him ; his priests denounced. 
His sovereign's wrath was poured upon his head. 
He journeyed to the distant South afar ; 
And passed upon his way the grave of Shun ; 
And wept, wept o'er the daughters of ancient Yao, 
The spirit of the deep before him went. 
And stilled the noisy waves tumultuous roar, 
As 'twere a lamb the monster fierce he drove.f 
In heaven above the golden harps were still, 
And God was sad, and called him to his place 
Beside his throne. 1 now salute him there. 
And now present to him my off'rings poor : 
The red lichee, the yellow plantain fruit, 
Alas ! Why lingered he not then on earth ; 
But passed so soon away with flowing locks 
Into the future world — the great unknown ? 

It will be seen that the sentimental is not wanting in the 
Chinese character, though it is kept down to a great extent 
by their customs and manners ; — 

MY XEIGHBOUR. 

\N'hen the Bear athwart was hing, 
And the night was just on dying, 
And the moon was all but gone, 
How my thoughts did ramble on ! 
Then a sound of music breaks 
From a lute that some one wakes, 
And I know that it is she. 
The sweet maid next door to nic. 
And as the strains steal o'er mc 
Her moth-eyebrows rise before me 
And I feel a gentle thrill 
That her fingers must be chill. 
But doors and locks between us 
So effectually screen us 
That I hasten from the street 
And in dreamland pray to meet. 

* The other two were 'i'u Fu iind Li Tui-po. 

I Referring to the crucudile which he is siiid io have driven aw.iv, 



POKTRV. 409 

Poetry is liokl in higli estiniuliuu by the Cliinese. 
Capping verses is a pastime of scliolars ; and at the com- 
petitive examinations the candidates liave to try tlieir hands 
at the composition of verse. Tliis mechanical art they have 
first to learn at school, as. with us, boys waste their time at 
public schools and colleges in composing ]jatin verse. The 
consequence is, that all the educated men are verse-makers — 
we cafinot call such poets. To this cause is partly due the 
mechanical structure of much of Chinese poetry, but it is also 
due to the peculiarities of its construction. Nor is the art of 
poetry confined to men. China has had her burning Sapphos 
who loved and sang and her lyric Corinnas. The lower 
classes are passionately fond of the recitations of ballads by 
men who ^o from house to house for the purpose. 

We append a piece translated by the late G. C. Stent : — 

CHANG LIANG'S FLUTE. 
' Twas night — the tired soldiers were peacefully sleeping, 

The low hum of voices was hushed in repose ; 
The sentries in silence a strict watch were keeping, 

'Gainst surprise, or a sudden attack of their foes. 

When a mellow note on the night air came stealing, 

So soothingly over the senses it fell — 
So touchingly sweet — so soft and appealing. 

Like the musical tones of an aerial bell. 

Now rising, now falling — now fuller and clearer — 

Now liquidly soft— now a low wailing cry — 
Xow the cadences seem floating nearer and nearer — 

Now dying away in a whispering sigh. 

Then a burst of sweet music so plaintively thrilling. 

Was caught up by the echoes who sang the refrains 

In their many-toned voices — the atmosphere tilling 
With a chorus of dulcet mysterious strains. 

The sleepers arouse and with beating hearts listen. 

In their dreams they had heard that weird music before : 

It touches each heart — with tears their eyes glisten, 

For it tells them of those they may never see more. 

In fancy those notes to their childhood's days brought them. 
To those far-away scenes they had not seen for years ; 

To those who had loved them, had reared them and taught them, 
And the eyes of those stern men became wet with tears. 

Bright visions of home through their mcm'ries came thronging, 

Panoriima-Iike passing in front of their view ; 
They were hoiiic-sick, no power could withstand that strange longing, 

The longer they listened, the more home-sick they grew. 



ITO TllIMJ^ L'UIMC^E. 

Whence came ihosc sweet sounds ? Who the unseen n;usician 
That breathes out his soul which floats on the niglit-biee/e 

In melodious sighs — in strains so elysian— 

As to soften the hearts of rude soldiers like these ? 

Each looked at the other, but no word was spoken, 

The music insensibly tempting them on : 
They mu.<il. return home :— ere the daylight had broken, 

The enemy looked, and behold, the}' were gone I 

There's a magic in music — a witchery in it, 

Indescribable either with tongue or with pen ; 
The flute of Chang-Liang, in that one little minute, 

Had stolen the courage of eight thousand men. 

Jioolix rccmnmciulrd — ' Tlie Poetr)' of the Chinese," by Sir. .J. F. Davis, 
Bart, K.C.B., F.K.S., kc. This book skives an account of the structure of 
Chinese poetry and a number of specimens. An article on " Chinese Poetry.' 
by the late Sir AV alter Medliurst, in • The ( 'hina Review.' Vol. IV., p. 46. ' The 
Jade Chaplet,' by G. C. Stent: 'Entombed Alive, and other Verses," from the 
same author's facile pen. For accoinits of Su-'J'ung-po, see ' China Review,' 
Vol. I., p. i52. wliere two or three farther specimens of his poetry are given, 
and Vol. XII., p. 81. 'Tlie works of Su-Tung-po, an article in "The Chinese 
Repository,' Vol. XL, p. 1H2. ' Li-Tai-po as a Poet.' a short account of 
Li-Tai-po's poetry in 'The China Review,' Vol. XVII., p. Sr>. ' ('hinese 
Legends and other Poems, by W. A. P. Martin, D.D.. L.L. I>. 'Chinese 
Poetry in English Verse," by H. A. Giles, M.A.. L.L.D., from which we have 
culled a number of our si)ecimens given above. 

POPULATION. — Mucli has been written on the popti- 
lation of China and various surmises and estimates liavc been 
made of the number of the inhabitants. 

If it is well night impossible to find the exast number of 
any one people in our Western lands, much more difficult is 
it in the East. There are several things that militate against 
an exact return being made of the popitlation in a country 
like China. To begin with, the object of taking a census in 
this land has often been simply for the purposes of revenue, 
and infants and young children as well as very aged men 
were not inckided, though, at the present day, a fttller method 
of taking the census is in vogue. Then again people who 
do not have the fullest confidence in their rulers have not 
probably been willing to give the fullest returns to these 
rulers. And, again, anyone who knows anything about 
Orientals can readily understand hoAv difticult it is for them. 
brought up -w ith such a want of precision in their habits of 
thought and expression, to realise the importance of contri- 
buting their quota of statistics with the care and exactitude 



rorrLATioN. 171 

tliey demancl. Notwithstaudiug- all these things, the different 
censuses taken by the Chinese in the past are wortliy, on the 
whole, in many instances, of a considerable amount of credence; 
and, in fact, form the only returns available for the entire 
empire. Compared with estimates made by foreigners, thov 
are tolerably trustworthy 

There have bc^on considerable Huetiiations in tlio number 
of peo[)lo in China at^ ditterciit periods : wars, robelli(Mis, 
famines and floods have exerted a most depopulating effect 
on large tracts of country and liavo acted as a drag on the 
continual tendency to increase 

Notwithstanding all these mlnimislug effects, durimj the 
centuries and millenniums the empire has been in existence, 
the inhabitants have increased from some 21,000,000 to the 
380,000,000 which some eighteen or nineteen years ago 
formed what was considered on the best native data to be the 
present population of this immense country. 

Had it not been for the gigantic T'ai-p'ing rebellion its 
population might now have been reckoned at 450,000,000. 
To this figure of 380,000,000 must be added the population 
of Mancluiria and of the vast regions of Hi and Tibet, which 
may be anything from 15,000,000 to 27.000,000 more : so 
that, perhaps, all things considered the round sum of 
400,000,000 may be taken as that of the whole of the 
dominions ruled over by the Emperor of China; it is, 
probably, not much less, and it may be considerably more, 
than that. 

As to the population to the square mile, it is said the 
Eighteen Provinces have an average of 1,318,870 square, 
miles, though this statement is not su{)posed to be accurate. 
With a population of say 380,000,000. and the total of square 
miles given above, there would be nearly 282 Chinese to a 
square mile of their tenitory. But the density of the popula- 
tion differs greatly in different parts of the country; 'that 
of the nine eastern [provinces in and near the Great Plain, 
comprising 502.192 scjuare miles, or two-fifths of the whole* 



47-2 THINGS CHINESE. 

is nearly three times that of •' the nine southern and western 
provinces constituting the otlier three fifths' of the eighteen 
Provinces of China. • The surfucs and fertility of the country 
in these two portions differ so gi'catly as to lead one to look 
for results like tliose.' Taking tlie countries of France, 
Germany, Great Britain. Italy, Holland, Spain, Japan, and 
Bengal for comparison witli China^ we find that only two of 
them — Great Britain and Bengal — exceed the density of the 
average population of China ' taken as a whole, while none 
of them come up to the average of the eastern provinces,' but 
fall far short of it. From an estimate of one district in 
Shantung, it was calculated that in that spot the population 
to the square mile was 531, "'or considerably above the 
average of the Kingdom of Belgium (the most densely 
populated country in Europe), which had in A.D. 1873 an 
average of only 462 to the square mile.' In another spot the 
actual number of families in each village was taken, so far as 
the number was known to the natives, the number of 
individuals to the family being reckoned as five, though it is 
often far larger than that. This otlior spot gave a result of 
2,129 to the square mile. 

' So far as appearances go, there are thousands of square miles 
in Southern and central Chihli, Western and South Western Shan- 
tung and Northern Honan, where the villages are as thick as in this 
one tract, the contents of which we are thus able approximately to 
compute. But for the plain of North China as a whole, it is probable 
that it would be found more reasonable to estimate 300 persons to 
the square mile for the more sparsely settled districts and from 1,000 
to 1,500 for the more thickly settled regions. In any case a vivid 
impression is thus gained of the enormous number of human beings 
crowded ir.to these fertile and historic plains, and also of the almost 
insuperable difficulties in the way of an exact knowledge of the 
facts of the true "census." 

The province boasting tl\e largest population is Kiangsu : 
the inhabitants are 37.800,U00 in number ; from this they 
dwindle down to between five or six millions in each of the 
two provinces of Kweichau and Yunnan. 

'Living as the Chinese, Hindus, Japanese, and other Asiatics do, 
chiefly upon vegetables, the country can hardly be said to maintain 
more than one-half or one-third as many people on a square mile as it 
might do. if their energies were developed to the same extent with 



PORCELAIN AXD POTTERY. 473 

those of the English or Belgians.' ' Tne social and political causes 
which tend to multiply the inhabitants are numerous and powerful. 
The failure of male posterity to continue the succession of the family, 
and worship at the tombs of parents, is considered by all classes 
as one of the most afflictive misfortunes of life; the laws allow 
unlimited facilities of adoption, and secure the rights of those taken 
into the family in this way. The custom of betrothing children, and 
the obligation society imposes, when arrived at maturity, to fulfil 
the contracts entered into by their parents, acts favourably to the 
establishment of families and the nurture of children, and restricts 
polygamy. Parents desire children for a support in old age, as there 
IS no legal or benevolent provision for aged poverty, and public 
opinion stigmatises the man who allows his aged or infirm parents 
to sufter when he can help them. The laws require the owners of 
domestic slaves to provide husbands for their females, and prohibits 
the involuntary or forcible separation of husband and wife, or parents 
and children, when the latter are of tender age. All these causes and 
influences tend to increase population, and equalise the consumption 
and use of property more, perhaps, than in any other land. The 
custom of families remaining together tends to the same result.' 
' The reasons just given why the Chinese desire posterity are not all 
those which have favoured national increase. The uninterrupted 
peace which the country enjoyed between the years 1700 and 1850 
operated to greatly develope its resources. Every encouragement 
has been given to all classes to multiply and to fill the land. 
Polygamy, slavery, and prostitution, three social evils which check 
increase, have been circumscribed in their effects. Early betrothment 
and poverty do much to prevent the first ; the female slaves can be 
and are usually married ; while public prostitution is reduced by a 
separation of the sexes and early marriages. No fear of overpassing 
the supply of food restrains the people from rearing families, though 
the Emperor Kienlung issued a proclamation, in 1793, calling upon 
all ranks of his subjects to economise the gifts of heaven, lest, erelong, 
the people exceed the means of subsistence.' 

JlooltK rt'oommcnded. — William's 'Middle Kingdom,' Vol. 1, pp. 258 — 
288, where the wliole subject is gone into most exhaustively. An article 
l).v ilev. Arthur Smith in 'The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal ' 
for January, IS'JS, entitled 'Estimating the Population of China.' Other 
arti(>les on tlie same subject liave appeared in the same journal . 



PORCELAIN AND POTTERT.~The wovd procelain, 
it is said, was introduced by the Portuguese, (in the sixteenth 
century) who first brought such ware in any quantity to 
Europe from China. The name ' refers to the exterior 
appearance resembling the shining white of the Ci/pra'ci or 
porcelain shell (Portuguese lyorceUana) ' ' so called from its 
carved upper surfc\ce being supposed to resemble the rounded 
back of ajyorceUa, or little hog.' 

2 I 



4T4 THINGS CHINESE. 

Marco Polo saw the manufacture of it in Cliina in A.D, 
1280, and informs as that it was sent all over the world, and 
evidences of this early trade in it are found in India, Persia, 
Egypt, Malayia, and Zanzibar, 

' The Chinese from the most ancient times have cultivated 
the art of welding clay, and they claim the invention of the 
potter's wheel, like most of the great nations of antiquity.' 
Like the origin of many Chinese things, the invention of 
porcelain is shrouded in mists of antiquity, and no certain 
date can be assigned to it. ' It is generally ascribed by them 
to the ancient Emperor Shun, who is supposed to have 
reigned during the third milliennium B.C. ; but some attribute 
it to his more famous predecessor, Huang-ti, who is given a 
Director of Pottery ' among the officers of his court. 

'In a book published in the Ghow dynasty, 'there is a short 
section on pottery, in which the processes of fashioning on the wheel 
and moulding are distinguished. Among the productions we read of 
coffins, sacrificial wine-jars, and altar dishes, cooking utensils and 
measures, all made no doubt of simple pottery, and it is doubted 
whether this was ever covered by a vitreous glaze— the employment 
of which is so ancient in Egypt. Different potteries are mentioned in 
the Wei and following dynasties.' ' The manufacture of articles of 
pottery for domestic use then was known to the Chinese as early as 
B, C. 1700.' 

This is one view, but, unfortunately, the term used for 
porcelain in Chinese is one of those words which every 
language possesses, namely, words which have changed from 
their original significance — this word, having first been 
applied to all pottery, affords no sure clue for fixing dates as 
to the original production of porcelain. St. Julien places the 
invention as early as between B.C. 185 and A.D. 83, 'It has 
been objected to this, with justice, that the Chinese state- 
ments on which he bases his theory, are, like those of Marco 
Polo, very superficial and indefinite, and most probably relate 
to quite other clay-wares.' Therefore, the statement that 
porcelain was produced in the Han dynasty (B.C. 206 to 
A.D, 220) is unfortunately incapable of proof. Were it 
possible to discover any indubitable productions of that 
epoch, all doubt might be sot at rest, but at present it is not 



POIKJI'ILAIN AM) POTTElir. ^I'S 

known that any exist. Were archu'ology more of a science 
among the Chinese tlian it is, some hope might be entertained 
that such wouhl be the case. Some have been sceptical enough 
to suppose that it was not known *' long, it' at all, before the 
Ming dynasty (A.D. 13()8), ' while again, on the other hand, 
it is asserted that porcelain was invented when, in the middle 
of the ninth century, certain pieces were produced of a white 
colour, like ivory, and giving a clear sound when struck. 

It is supposed that the Chinese endeavoured to imitate 
ivory in their whole porcelain, whicli is known in France as 
hlant' dc Chine. 

The cups, produced at Ta-i, of this ware, have had their 
praises sung by Tu-fu, a poet of the T'aug dynast) (See 
Article on Poetry.) The decorations were eft'ected before the 
baking and were not elaborate, being confined to such subjects 
as fish, flowers, &c. 

'This was the time when the cobalt decorations under glaze 
were first employed, which horn then till now have played such an 
important part in the ornamentation of Chinese porcelain, especially 
for domestic use among the Chinese themselves.' 

' At whatever period or by whatever happy chain of circumstances 
porcelain was invented, we have tangible evidence that the Chinese 
potters produced wonderful works at a very early period of our era, 
and have gone on producing them up to our own day. Speaking on 
this subject, JNI. Phillippe Burty remarks : — ■"' The Chinese ceramists 
succeeded to a marvellous degree in their manipulation of porcelain ; 
in their hands it became a truly magical substitute, receiving every 
form and gradation of colour that caprice could dictate. In their 
porcelain productions we have proof that the decorative taste and 
imitative skill of the Chinese artists are almost faultless. You see, 
for instance, * * a carp and carplings with distended gills 
slipping amongst a clump of reeds ; a garden rat devouring a peach ; 
a toad crawling up the involuted root of a bamboo ; or a beautiful 
water-lily in full bloom, forming a cup, of which the tea-pot is so 
constructed that not only have its concentric, movable rings been 
carved out of a solid mass, but they revolve upon each other, causing 
us to wonder how adherence could have been prevented in the firing. 
The origin of the great superiority of the Uriental potters is, that they 
start, in nearly all instances, with a more or less free or capricious 
imitation of some natural production ; and the aiticle, peculiar in 
outline and treatment, will, however, readily suggest to the mind 
some affinity with the real object. All the productions of the natural 
world, and. indeed, the beings and ni"iisUrs wiUi wliieh they crowd 

•> , •> 



i'% TlliNGS CHINESE. 

the supernatural woild, are alike resorted to for fresh inspiration ; and 
their habits of careful observation of nature supply them with 
countless delicate subtleties." ' 

' It is unquestionably to this great appreciation for, and unre- 
mitting study of the works of nature that we are indebted for the 
marvellous variety of works produced by the artists of China and 
Japan. No one can review a collection of Oriental porcelain without 
being struck with the masterly handling of form and colour it displays. 
In flower vases, perfume burners, and water vessels, every shape that 
the mineral, animal, and vegetable kingdoms could suggest has 
been adopted, and the colouring studiously imitated.' 'The early 
procelain of the Chinese appears to have been remarkable for its 
form, and the beauty of its material. At one time, it is probable, 
white procelain only was made ; but it is evident that at a very early 
date the art of covering the pieces with a rich coloured enamel 
had been invented, and also the mode of producing the crackled 
appearance in the enamel discovered. Many varieties of white 
procelain have been produced by the Chinese potters, and some are 
of great beauty, not only on account of the perfection of their paste, 
but likewise from the tasteful manner in which they are decorated, 
Some have flowers or conventional designs, carefully modelled in 
relief, while others have designs so engraved that they are visible 
only when held up to the light.' 

'The old Chinese potters do not appear to have worked in 
grooves, or styles, beyond what a limited demand on the part of 
their patrons rendered necessary. No sooner had some experiment 
or accident introduced a new colour, combination of colours, or some 
peculiar surface decoration, than articles were produced siutable for 
the display of the same ; and we are of opinion that in many cases 
such essays were never repeated, until attempted in the recent periods 
of imitation to meet the demand of European collectors. There are, 
no doubt, such things as unique Chinese porcelain in the cabinets of 
collectors in China and Europe, and it is highly probable that they 
have been unique from the day of their fabrication. Many specimens, 
now sc much prized, may have been spoiled pieces in the eyes of 
their makers, and, not turning out to be what was desired or expected 
at the time, were never repeated. This argument applies to the 
highly curious, and at times extravagant specimens of the splashed 
or enamelled ware which are met with, and which carry with them 
evidences, in their distorted shapes and slag-like vitrification, of their 
accidental decoration.' 

The paste of porcelain-ware is prepared ustially from 
two ingredients ; these are finely mixed and pulverised ; the 
one is known as kaolin, so called, it is said, from a hill to 
the east of the Chinese Imperial Porcelain ManitfactorVj 
King-teh-chin, kao meaning higli in Chinese, and Hit 
(pro[)erly Ung). a ridge, or high peak, • which hill, however, 
does not yield the product of decomposition wliicli wc in 



pohcelaw and poTtEuy. i:: 

Europe call kaolin (•• porcelain or pipe clay") but a phyllite, 
whose chemical composition resembles that of the Swedish 
Hiillcflinta (?)'; the other ingredient consists of some mineral 

• rich in silicic acid, the so-called tlux usually felspar or 

pegmatite, porcelain stone ( * * these porcelain stones, 
which are wanting in our porcelain industry, contribute 
greatly to that of China and Japan), or some other white- 
burning form of quartz is used in the liner ceramics.' The 
proportion of the two and the degree of heat in firing depend 
upon whether porcelain or faience is to be produced. Some of 
the colours which were used by the Chinese six hundred years 
ago to decorate their porcelain • we are not yet able to imitate.' 

The white Ting porcelain would appear to have been in 
existence during tlie seventh century. The Ting-Yao was 
made at Ting Chau in Chihli, whence its name. It was also 
known as white Ting porcelain from its colour being mostly 
of a brilliant white. It is probably one of the oldest kinds. 
There Avere three varieties of it — plain, smooth, and that 
having ornaments in relief. The sign of its being genuine is 
that of having marks like tears on it. It is to be distinguished 
from the creamy white of another species of porcelain, the 
kien-yin made in Fuhkien. Commencing with the beginning 
of the seventh century, it seems probable that the manufacture 
of porcelain 'began to flourish in various parts of the Empire.' 
Of the different kinds produced during the T'ang dynasty, no 
specimens, as far as is known, are extant, but those of the 
Sung period are to be found in the market ; these, from their 
age, command a good price. Unfortunately, however, many 
of this period were of such a delicate make as to be unfitted 
for survival during the centuries that have intervened. 
Some, especially those of an indestructible nature, have been 
handed down ; the others are only known from the descrip- 
tions given of them in books. Amongst the best of them 
were the Ch'en and Ju kinds. The .Ju was of a pale ' bluish- 
green.' 

At the same time as the Ta-i cups, mentioned above, 
were produced at Yuch-chow for the Emperor's use, the 



4t8 mLS'GS CHINESE. 

class of porcelain styled Pi-S3 was made, the colour described 
as * a hidden colour ' has given rise to some discussion as to the 
precise meaning. So tine was certain porcelain made here 
that it was described ^as transparent as jade and so resonant 
as to be used in sets of twelve to play tunes upon.' But few, 
if any, specimens of these ancient examples of ceramic art 
are in existence. IS'o kind of painted decoration appears to 
have been used before the Sung dynasty, as writers are silent 
about anything of the kind. 

The tenth century is marked by progress, both in the 
perfected operations and in the art of the decorator, Avhich 
felt the influence of Buddhism bringing Indian art in its 
train, and improving the taste of the natives. The Chinese 
describe the porcelain produced at this epoch ( A.D. 960 ) in 
the following terms :— 'Blue as the sky, bright as a mirror, 
fragile as paper, and sonorous as a plaque of jade-stone ; 
they were lustrous and of a charming delicacy ; the fineness 
of the crackle and the purity of the colour are distinguishing 
features of them : they eclipse by their beauty all preceding 
procelains.' They were called by the highly poetical name 
of Yii hwo tlen ts'mg, cerulean blue in the cloud rifts as it 
appears after the showers; they were highly valued and even 
broken fragments were treasured up as jewels would be, and 
formed into ornaments. We shall find that later on these 
were imitated with good effect. 

Amongst numerous manufactories opened then through- 
out the empire, that of King-teh-chin in Kiang-si, established 
in A.D. 1001, takes the pre-eminence. It is still the Imperial 
manufactory and ' supplies all the fine porcelain used in the 
country.' It was almost wholly destroyed by the T'ai-'p'ing 
rebellion. A million workmen were employed there previous 
to that event, when they were dispersed, either joining the 
insurgent ranks or dying of want; but according to latest 
accounts these manufactories arc resuming their prosperity ; 
five hundred kilns, it is said, are constantly burning. 

'And bird-like poise on balanced ^^ing• 
Above the town of King-te-tching, 
A biirnin'^ town or seeming so, — ■ 



PORCELAIN A\}> POTTERY. 479 

Three thousand furnaces that ghnv 
Incessantly, and till the ah" 
With smoke uprising, gyre on gyre. 
And painted by the lurid glare, 
Of jets and flashes of red fire 

Longfellow ' Kt'ranios.' 

Rapid progress was made in the art, and at the end of 
the tenth century coh)ured enamel was iirst applied on the 
pieces baked in biscuit, and various colours, such as several 
shades of violet and blue, as well as yellow were used. Budd- 
hist and Taoist figures, flowers, and the Chinese written 
characters, which liavo for so many centuries lent themselves 
readily to decorative an, all were employed, as well as fillets 
in relief. 

The Chiin is another of the oldest kinds of porcelain. 
The factories for its production were in existence in the tenth 
century, at the beginning of tlie Sung dynasty. One native 
work says ; — 

'The highest quality consists of pieces having a colour as red as 
cinnabar, and as green as onion leaves and kingfishers' plumage, 
o o o Qj^f\ ^i^Q purple brown colour of the skin of an egg plant 
fruit, or of pieces red like rouge, green like onion leaves and king- 
fishers' plumage, and purple like ink-black, these three colours being- 
pure and not in the slightest degree changed during the firing.' 

Kuan-yao, mandarin porcelain, as its name implies, was 
produced in certain Government factories. 

Dr. Hirth describes the specimen seen by him as 'of a peculiar 
brownish green, a sort of bronze colour,' called by the Chinese 
ch'a-ch'ing, tea green, but the varieties described as of the Sung 
dynasty are 'white and thin like paper'; 'another was very much 
the same as Ko-Yiiti [the ancient celadon crackle] with three 
gradations in colour constituting their value, viz. : (i) a pale c/i'inu-- 
green ; (2) a fallow white ; and (3) gray. The Ko-ku-\ao-lun speaks 
of tV^'//V^''-green playing into pale scarlet, the shades being very 
difterent though ; the best ones having the " crab's claw pattern," 
and " a red brim with an iron coloured bottom." ' 

Another division of porcelains was the Lvng-dc i'ian-iia\i 
and Ko-iidii, ' the real old celadons ' described as of ' a sea- 
green mixed with bluish or grayish tints, neither a decided 
green nor anything like blue.' The qualities it possesses are 
'thickness, heaviness, rich olive or sea-green enamel, white 



480 TJIINGS CHINESE. 

paste, and a * * ferruginous ring on the bottom ' — the 
paste, which was originally white, turned red in the fire. 
These were produced in the Sung and Yuen dynasties (A.D. 
9G0 to 1308) and socni to have been carried by the current 
of meditcval Chinese trade into ' Arab possessions and other 
foreign countries.' 

We quote the following interesting account of crackle from 
Gulland's new and interesting work • Chinese Porcelain : — 

'This [crackle], like the following class [celadon], consists of a 
glaze, white or coloured, generally covering a coarse paste resem- 
bling stoneware, which is sometimes of quite a red colour. Although 
now artificially produced, it is said originally, at an early period, to 
have been discovered by accident. Crackle, it is said by the Chinese, 
was knownduring the southern Sung dynasty (A.D. 1 127 — 1278). There 
seems to be various ways of producing this effect, which appears in 
the main to have been caused by exposing the piece to a sudden drop 
in temperature, thus causing the glaze on the surface to contract 
faster than the paste or biscuit, and so break into sections, which, 
when baked, become crackle. In these small cracks in the glaze, 
Indian ink or a red colour were sometimes rubbed, thus heightening 
the effect. The Chinese were so completely the masters of the pro- 
cess, that they could turn out at will crackle of any size, now known 
as large, medium and small crackle, the latter being called by the 
French truite, from its resemblance to the scales of a trout.' 

The crackled porcelain known as tsui-k't in the 
thirteenth century was also a product of this first or primitive 
period of the ceramic art in China. 'The beautiful coloured 
ground tints, chalcedony, dull violet, yellow and Turkish 
blue, so much valued by collectors, began to be used in the 
thirteenth century.' 

The second period, the Siuen-tih, comprises the reigns of 
Siuen-tih, Ching-tung, and King-tai, lasting from A.D. 1126 
to A.D. 1 165. Ceramic art was still in a formative stage at 
the commencement of this period, notwithstanding the 
advances made in the last period. Its cliaracteristic type 
was the decoration of blue flowers under the glaze. This 
blue was the su-ni-po, and took after the firing a pale blue. 
This porecelain is highly esteemed by the Chinese. M. 
Paleologue describes the pieces thus produced in the following 
terms ;—*Elles out, en effet, un charme doux de coloris et 



rOItCELAIN AN3 pottery. 481 

de composition, une purete de ton, une delicatesse d'aspcct 
qui n'ont jamais ete surpasses. 

Red was also put into the enamel for the first time 
before the glaze was applied, being ' painted on the paste 
so that the red designs shone through the glaze, dazzling the 
eyes. It is described as obtained by powdering rubies from 
the West, but this is impossible.' It was a copper silicate ; 
and the red for painting over the glaze was prepared from 
sulphate of iron and carbonate of lead. * This mixture 
produced a fine coral red,' and, to procure a deep enough 
red, cornelian was employed. 

Amongst other work produced at this time may be 
mentioned some pottery known by the Portuguese as 
boccaro : the fine kind of this ware was formed into teapots 
and other objects, while the coarser sort was employed as 
ornamentation on walls, it being used in the famous Porcelain 
Tower of Nanking, which was built A.D. 1415-1430. 

The reign of Siuen-tih ' is celebrated for its porcelain, which is 
held [by some] to be the finest produced during the Ming dynasty : 
every production was of the highest artistic value. Cups were 
made of a bright red or of sky blue. The surface on some cups was 
granulated like the skin of a fowl or the peel of the sweet orange. 
There were vases crackled like glass, or with veins as red as the 
blood of the eel, rivalling in beauty the porcelain of Jou-chou and the 
Kuan-yao. The bowls decorated with crickets were of extraordinary 
beauty,' 

'The most flourishing period of Chinese porcelain making, how- 
ever, like that of most other branches of its art industry, was during 
the Ming dynasty, especially in the second half of the fifteenth cen- 
tury. During this period its manufacture occupied a new position 
owing to the employment of many coloured decorations upon glaze 
after the article had been baked. This was a Jiew development, and 
was called "the five-coloured porcelain," because more than one 
colour was employed, but the number was not necessarily confined to 
five. We shall refer again to these under the K'ang-hi period. With 
this advance the artist proceeded to more difficult subjects for decora- 
tive purposes, such as the human figure, historical, legendary, and 
religious scenes and landscapes. Porcelains in which green pre- 
domiated were particujary prized.' ' Gold and gold purple were not 
used till the year 1690.' 

The third epoch, that of Chin^-hwa, includes the reigns 
of Hung-chi, Ching-teh, Kia-tsing, and Lung-king, and lasted 

2 iv 



482 THINGS CHINESE. 

from A.D. 14G5 to 1573. Blue porcelain was still manufactured, 
less pure materials being employed in place of the su-ni-po. 

At the same time advances are noticeable in other points, 
such as arrangements of colours and skill in designs, 
&c. An improved quality of cobalt seems to have been used 
(A.D. 1521) and a new d-irk blue was produced ; the objects 
made in it commanded a high price. 

'In the Ching-hwa period [that of the reign of that sovereign A.D. 
1465- 1487] lived several celebrated artists. One made jars which he 
decorated on the upper part with the moxttan [tree peony] in flower, 
and below a hen and chickens full of life and movement. There were 
also cups with handles, painted with grapes ; wine cups, ornamented 
with figures and the lotus ; others as thin as paper, painted with blue 
flowers ; others with locusts. The enamelled were especially esteemed. 
The blue on the ware of this period is inferior to the Siuen-tih, but its 
paintings and colours surpass any that preceded them.' 

Gilding, wliich was first empolyed during the Yuen 
dynasy, was brought to perfection during the reign of Ching- 
hwa, (A.D. 1465-1489). 

'In the Kia-tsing period (A.D. 1522-1566) the dark blue 
vases were alone in favour.' 

Immence quantities of porcelain were ordered to be manu- 
factured for Imperial purposes in A.D. 1571 : no less a number 
than 105,770 pairs of different kinds of articles, and in 1583 
as many as 96,000 pieces, but remonstrances were made by 
the censors, and in some instances, at all events, the amounts 
were reduced. This wholesale ordering and consequent 
enormous production has flooded the streets of Peking with 
procelain of that date, ' where a street hawker may be seen 
with sweetmeats piled on dishes over a yard in diameter, or 
ladling iced syrup out of Ming bowls, and there is hardly a 
butcher's shop without a large Ming jar.' 

The Fourth period is styled the Wan-lih period, though 
it covers the reigns of Tai-chang, Tien-ki and Chung-ching 
of the Ming dynasty, as Avell as that of Shun-chi of the 
present, or Ts'ing dynasty, and lasted from A.D. 1573 to 1662. 

Green and the five cMoured porcelains were the chief 
products. Two drawbacks were experienced at this time ; 



PORCELAIN AND POTTERT. 483 

one was the giving out of the clay employed for the fine 

porcelain ; and the other was tlie cessation of the 

importation of the blue— tlie Mohammedan blue as the 

Chinese termed it — ;]ust, as a century before, the su-ni-po 

blue had failed. To meet the new condition of affairs and to 

hide the grayish character of the only products procurable 

with the materials at their disposal, a rich brilliancy of 

enamel was employed, and the importance attached to the 

outer surface hid the inferior products below. 

During the reign of Lung-King, the last Emperor of the 

last period, as well as during that of Wan-lih, the first of the 

period now under review, ' the Imperial manufactory produced 

pieces which showed the greatest artistic skill.' 

The latter Emperor 'had cups for the altar as white as jade, 
and of extraordinary beauty. The glaze of the vases was creamy, 
'•like a layer of congealed fat." The surface was granulated, as if 
covered with grains of millet, or like the flesh of a fowl; some are 
said to appear as if covered with buds of the azalea, and others 
shagreened like the peel of an orange.' During this same reign 
there 'lived a celebrated artist of the name of Au, who excelled in 
poetry, writing, and painting. * * He withdrew from the world 

and retired to a manufactory, where he produced, in secret, porcelain, 
remarkable alike for its quality and the beauty of its colours. Among 
these the most sought after were large cups, ornamented with red 
clouds, brilliant as vermilion, and egg-shell cups, of dazzling white- 
ness, and so fine that some of them did not weigh more than twelve 
grains.' 'The white pieces of the Wan-hih ' reign, 'were very 
celebrated.' 'The manufacture of porcelain continued at the King- 
teh-chin Imperial Potteries under the present dynasty (the Ts'ing or 
Manchu Tartar A.D. 1662) with equal success.' During Shun-chi's 
reign, however, as well as the latter part of the Ming dynasty, ' there 
seems to have been a great decline in the manufacture of fine 
porcelain ; therefore little artistic work is found during this period.'' 

'The Monochrome porcelain of the Ming and Kien-lung periods, 
the ruby, san^ de bcciif, Imperial yellow, crushed strawberry, peach- 
bloom, moonlight blue, camellia-green, apple-green, and other rare 
enamel porcelains of old China always have been, and still remain, 
inimitable.' 

'The secret of the Chinese coloured enamel porcelain vases 
consisted in 'the art of using vitrifiable enamels, which required the 
second firing over the glaze at a low temperature.' 

The Fifth epoch is that of the reign of the Emperor 
K'ang-hi (A.D. 1662-1723) in which the art of the manu- 
facture of porcelain attained its greatest eminence, as M. 
Palcologue says about it : — 

2 K 2 



484. TllimS CIIINESi^. 

' C'est la belle epoque de la porcelaine. Les precedes sc sont 
perfectionnes, les ressources des ceramistes et des peintres sont plus 
riches ; d'autre part, les formes sont plus heureuses et mieux pon- 
derees, la composition plus savante et plus variee ; les colorations 
ont une harmonic douce ou une puissance d'eclat que les pieces an- 
ciennes, avaient rarement realisees.' -~ 

Mr. Gulland calls attention to the fact that : • • 

Kanghi ' seem s to have been a very able man, fond of art and science, 
willing moreover to avail himself of the assistance of the Jesuit mis- 
sionaries and it was probably their aid that led, as Sir A. W. Franks 
says, " to many improvements in the porcelain manufacture and to the 
introduction of several new colours." It is said that two Jesuit lay 
brothers were at this time employed at the royal factories of King- 
te-chin.' 

Ysbranti Ides, ambassador to China from Peter the 
Great in A.D. 1692, speaking of the porcelain of the country 
says : — 

' The finest, richest, and most valuable China is not exported, or 
as least very rarely, partieularly a yellow ware, which is destined for 
the Imperial use, and is prohibited to all other persons. They have 
a kind of crimson ware [probably the sa7ig-de-bwuf\ which is very 
fine and dear, because great quantities of it are spoiled in the baking. 
They have another sort, of a shining white, purfled with red, which is 
produced by blowing the colour through a gauze, so that both the 
inside and outside are equally beautihed with crimson no bigger than 
pins' points ; and this must be very expensive, since for one piece that 
succeeds a hundred are spoiled. They have a kind of China 
purfled in the same manner with gold. Also a kind which looks like 
mosaic work, or as if it had been cracked in a thousand places and 
set together again without cement. There is another kind of violet- 
coloured china, with patterns composed of green specks, which are 
made by blowing the colours through a frame pierced with holes ; 
and this operation succeeds so rarely, that a very small basin ie 
worth two or three hundred pounds. They have a kind of whits 
china, excessively thin, with blue fishes painted on the material be- 
tween the coats of varnish, so that they are invisible except when the 
cup is full of liquor.' 

The most of the porcelain of this period may be grouped 
under the four heads of white porcelain, green, rose, and 
coloured glaze. 

This white porcelain was made in Te-hoa in the 
Fuh-kien province ; the Chinese call it peJi-ts.::, that is ' white 
porcelain.' It 'is very lustrous and polished,' but it is very 
thick. It was used with good effect in the construction of 



PORCELAIN AND POTTERW iSa 

statuettes of Buddhist idols. AI. Palcologuc thus describes 
one that he saw : — 

'Ccrtaiacs statuettes faites de cetto pate out iin charmc singulior ; 
unc decssc Kouan-yin, que nous vinies a Pckin, avail, dans son im- 
mobilite hieratiquc, une delicatesse de formes, unc grace pensive, une 
douceur de physionomie et une suavite d'expression que n'ont jamais 
depassees les plus beaux bronzes sacres.' 

The white is not confined to one shade, but runs througli 
all the varieties. 

With regard to the green porcelain, two schools sprang 
up : one, while following the models of antiquity, introduced 
a grace and beauty and an improvement in style wanting in 
the old works. Flowers, sprays of trees, grasses, flights of 
birds, beetles, and dragon-flies, all lent their aid to the de- 
corations of these objects, and the love of nature, so inherent 
in the Chinese, had full scope, while in combination with 
the dominant green, appeared red and touches of yellow^ 
blue, and violet ; the other school, while paying less atten- 
tion to colouring, had able brushes and skilful hands, which 
were employed in depicting ' historical or religious scenes, 
full of life and movement,' but unfortunately an Imperial 
edict in A.D. 1677 put an end to the production of such 
scenes. 

Several new colours were discovered about A.D. 1680. 
The rose colour had different shades of ' exquisite sweetness,' 
The commonest subjects employed were flowers and birds, 
amongst the former, the lotus and chrysanthemum were 
favourites. This kind of porcelain, however, was further 
perfected in the following period. Of the remaining por- 
celains, of this epoch, the celadons and the flambes are 
to be particularly noticed. With regard to the former they 
were not first produced during this epoch, but some manu- 
factured now were perfect gems in brilliancy. 'Turquoise- 
blue, sea-green, and a suspicion of viulet' is one descrijition 
of what celadons are, and all these tints are often met 
blended in one. 



486 THINGS CHINESE. 

Gulland describes Celadon as' "single coloured glazes," known 
as "whole" or "self" coloured pieces. To lovers of colour this is 
probably the most interesting class. It was much appreciated by the 
collectors of last century, and still brings long prices. Of all the 
various descriptions, it is. perhaps, the one that lent itself best to 
French skill in ormolu mounting. The distinctive feature of this 
class is that the coloured glaze was applied to the " paste,'' and thus 
exposed to the extreme heat of the first firing. This often caused the 
glaze to change colour, hence the variegated hues to be met with, 
known to the French ?^sflainhl\ and to us as "splashed." In course 
of time the Chinese no doubt could produce this effect pretty well at 
will, and perhaps sometimes used glazes of more than one colour to 
obtain their end. The word celadon is unfortunately used in two 
senses — as a general term where the substance of which the vessel is 
made is hid from view by the coloured glaze with which it is covered ; 
in the other, as indicating that particular range of greens known by this 
name. * * In no class do we find greater variely or 

brilliancy of colourir.g than in this ; nearly every colour and shade 
thereof is to be met with.' 

The list of shades, thirty-four in number, given on page 
139 of Mr. Gulland's book will show what a variety of 
colours are to be met with in this interesting division of 
porcelain. 

We must really again quote IM. Paleologue, who is so 
in love with his subject that he woiild make an enthusiast 
of almost any one. He says of these celadons : — 

' Les celadons dits "bleu de ciel apres la pluie," en souvenir 
das porcelaines, de Che-tsong dont ils etaient I'imitation, nous ofifrent 
les plus delicats specimens de ce genre. Mais les celadons ornes de 
dessius graves ou imprimes en relief dans la pate du fond sont encore 
plus seduisants peut-etre par les effets de modele et de coloration 
que realise la couverte accumulee sur le decor : la fluidite' des teintes, 
la sorte d'ombre dont elles s'enveloppent par places n'ont jamais pu 
etre reproduites dans les porcelaines de fabrication europeenne. 
Notons enfin, dans le meme groupe ceramiqae les celadons bleu 
empois dont la couverte, preparee au cobalt, a un aspect lumineux, 
semi-translucide.' 

'Celadon porcelain is manufactured by applying the green glaze 
to the ware before it has been fired at all ; by this means, the 
peculiar depth of surface is given to it, the burning process thoroughly 
incorporating the glaze into the body.' 

The spotted celadons which were the rage in France in 
the eighteenth century were also the products of this period. 

There were some beautiful specimens of flambes at this 
time : one is described as resmbling precious stones blended 



PORCELAIN AND rOTTERY. 487 

together : but it is in the next period th<at these works were 
the most finished. 

During K'ang-hi's reign crackled China M'as brought to 
perfection : — 

' Perhaps the most characteristic ware produced by the Chinese 
potters is the crackled. Many varieties of this ware exist, but they 
are all produced by the same means, namely, the unequal contraction 
of the glaze and the body. There is little doubt that the first crackled 
piece was the result of an accident, or what might as properly be 
called, a blunder ; the glaze had not been of the usual quality, and 
in cooling, contracted so much more than the body, that it split into 
a thousand pieces.' 

'The crackle glaze is highly esteemed by the Chinese, and in 
their hands has been made in many varieties quite decorative. There 
is a style of large crackle with the intervening space filled with a fine 
crackle, the fine cracks never passing beyond the enclosing lines of 
the coarse. There are other specimens with zones of fine cr?.ckle, 
with intervening spaces without crackle, ornamented with markings 
to suit the fancy of the artist. But one of the most decorative crackles 
is produced by making the fissures of the first glaze as wide as pos- 
sible, and then rubbing colouring matter into the interstices ; the 
piece being again fired to fix these colours, after which a smooth 
transparent enamel is applied over all, often giving the piece the 
appearance of mosaic work.' 

Amongst other noteworthy productions of this epoch 
are to be named the tsang, the enamel of which was serpent 
green, gold yellow, pale yellow, violet or light green ; and 
this variety took all the colours of bronze. 

A very curious coloration is produced on vases by the 
■workman bloAving the colouring, ' after the base colour' was 
applied, which Avas matter ' usually of a reddish brown' 
colour, ' through a piece of gauze fastened at the end of a 
tube of bamboo.' ' This metallic colouring strikes in a spray, 
and, after firing, the specimen has a fine metallic lustre not 
very unlike what is known as gold stone.' Some vases have 
been subjected to this mode of treatment more than once, 
receiving a miniature shower of difterent coloured rain. This 
kind of decoration is known by the name of souffle, and the 
finest of it was produced during the Kang-hi period. 

Quite a variety of these decorations were produced, one 
of which at least is verv beautiful. By some means the 



488 THINGS CHINESE. 

colouring material was ' blown from the tube ' and lighted 
*upon the piece in small bubbles, some remaining as such, 
while most of them' broke and formed •' rings, many of the 
rings, in turn,' broke ^at their lower side, the colours running 
a little, often giving a beautiful agate appearance, in fact, 
such pieces are called agate specimens. Souffle porcelain was 
also made in the Kien-lung period, but not of so fine a 
quality' as that just described. 

'The best blacks were made in the reign of Kang-hi, and with 
their fine enamel some specimens are quite beautiful ; the black is 
produced by uranium oxide. Plain reds were not much used, it seems, 
during the time of Kang-hi, but a lovely tint was employed in con- 
nection with other colours' in the decorations. * * * what is 
known as the five-coloured decoration, was introduced during the 
Ming dynasty, but brought to its greatest degree of perfection during 
the time of Kang-hi. 'J"he five colours are red, yellow, green, blue, 
and black. These are all produced from metallic oxides or minerals ; 
no other colouring matter will stand the high degree of heat required 
to produce underglaze decoration. In using these colours in com- 
bination it required a great amount of experience and manipulative 
skill, and so the range of colours must necessarily be limited, for all 
material used must be of a character to fuse on the one hand before 
the fusing point of the paste, and on the other not evaporate and 
spoil the shade required, while enduring the heat necessary for the 
underglaze firing ; and then again, some colours are much more re- 
fractory than others ; no two fuse at the same temperature. There- 
fore the most refractory colours must in all cases be applied first, then 
the piece fired to the fusing point of this colour, then, for the shading 
of this colour, more must be added to points requiring the heavy 
shades, and fused again until this colour and its tints are satisfactory ; 
then the next refractory colour is applied in the same manner, fired 
to the fusing point, and so on until the last and most easily fusible 
colour has been applied, whereupon over all an enamel is fused 
which is less refractory than any colour. The fine specimens of the 
five colours have probably been fired from fifteen to twenty times. 
Then if the piece comes out at the last finished, without break, crack, 
warp, or the colours having run, and possessing all the brilliancy and 
shading desired, the piece is valuable ; many are spoiled during this 
fiery ordeal. With very limited exceptions the finest artists that ever 
existed in China lived during the K'ang-hi period.' During this 'time 
Chinese porcelain was brought to its highest degree of perfection and 
artistic beauty, with perhaps the exception of the beautiful IMing 
greens. The exquisite san^-de-bceiif \\\\en perfect is of great beauty. 
To describe its brilliancy would be most difficult, yet, if attempted, 
one might say, take a plain, undecorated porcelain vase and immerse 
it in the freshest arterial blood, and, while dripping, fix the colour 
with a deep transparent enamel. While one piece is nearly perfect, 
a thousand are more or less spoiled in the firing. They come out of 
the kiln from the beautiful colour above described to a much darker 



PORCELAIN AXD rOTTETiW 489 

red, often badly blotched ; from the latter they run throiigli all the 
shades until lost in an ash colour tinged with only the slightest blush 
of red. There is a beautiful blue which seems engraved into a 
creamy paste over which a liquid enamel is fixed, the enamel often 
being crackled, and also an exquisite white described as having the 
appearance of congealed fat. Perhaps with these exceptions, no 
Ming porcelain or decorations equal, in quality of paste, beauty of 
foim, purity of enamel, brilliancy and happy combination of colours, 
and high artistic decorative skill, the porcelain made during the 
reign of Kang-hi.' 

'With the exception of the beautiful blue and the creamy tinted 
white (often crackled), which belong to the Ming dynasty — these 
specimens are often rare — all other fine old blue and white china 
belongs to the K'ang-hi period, often inaccurately marked Ming in 
Chinese chracters on the bottom. Many of the specimens are 
very beautiful ; they have a clear white ground and brilliant blue 
ornamentation, and have this virtue, that in whatever light, and from 
whatever distance the colour of the piece is seen, it is always blue. 
These blues are formed from cobalt oxide. All the fine yellow with 
a deep transparent enamel which lights up with a delightful brilliancy, 
was also made in the K'ang-hi period ; these are often decorated with 
a lively green, usually with a dragon,' a lion, ' or some mythical 
creature.' 'Yellow is the present Imperial colour. The turcpoise 
variety was probably first made during this reign, and is among the 
most highly prized. The colour is derived from a copper oxide, and 
like the 5<?«^-(/i?r(^tr?(/' of the Mings, it seems to have been somewhat 
incorporated with the glaze, which is translucent, and, if it can be 
properly expressed in words, would appear as though you were 
looking into a depth of brilliant colour: when pure it is very beautiful, 
and has the property of retaining its character in artificial light. 
Green was the Imperial colour of the Mings, and was brought to a 
fair degree of perfection, having a jade-like brilliancy; in fact real 
jade was reduced to a fine powder and incorporated with ordinary 
colouring material, chromic oxide, so that in firing, a good jade green 
was the result. These fine greens were well preserved, but very much 
improved upon in true jade brilliancy during the K'ang-hi period. The 
plain green of the Mings called triiile is highly prized.' 

'Towards the end of the reign of K'ang-hi a new style of 
decoration appears in the " famille rose " distinguished by a totally 
different tone of colouring with its prevailing half tints and broken 
colours, including pink and ruby enamel derived from gold.' 

This kind of porcelain attained its highest excellence 
durincf the followin"; reiofn, that of Yunsr-chinfj. 

The Sixth epoch is that of Yung-ching and Kien-Iung 
A.D. 1723 to A.D. 179(3. The commencement of the period 
marked a new era in ceramic art, and the modern school 
may be said to have then begun. The artists of the modern 
school as regards the processes and technical skill are the 

2 h 



490 THINGS CHINESE. 

equals of their predecessors, 'in some points thoy are oven 
superior to them/ as for example in the egg-shell china 
produced by them ; but at the same time there are dis- 
tinguishable the causes which resulted in tlie decadence of 
the Chinese porcelain later on, for the ornament is overdone, 
the tendency being to cover the whole surface with arabesques, 
branches, and foliage. 

During Yung-ching's reign, a period of thirteen years, 
'the ceramic art declined, and very little fine work was done.' 
Yet what was done is of interest. There is a fine egg-shell 
specimen, very thin, often decorated. Some pieces were of 
the colour of an egg, and as shining as silver. Others were 
imitations of the ancient wares, especially the live-coloured 
Ming, true to the colour of the porcelain, which is- of a 
grayish white, but rather coarse in appearance instead of a 
clear white, like the K'ang-hi work. The colours used and 
the style of decoration are so exact that it would be difficult 
to detect the difference, were it not, perhaps, for the in- 
troduction of certain fruits, the peach and pomegranate, for 
instance, and the peculiar modified shapes of at least the 
beakers. 

*The "hawthorn pattern" — really the "prunus," which 
produces its blossoms before its leaves — is to be met with 
bearing very early date-marks ; but it is now generally held 
that none are gunine previous to Yung-ching (1723-1736), 
"and the finest and most prized examples were probably 
made about this date." ' 

In Kien-lung's reign many varieties of china were pro- 
duced, but ' the principal types may be ranged into four 
classes': —the rose porcelain, egg-shell, flambe, and that for 
exportation. We have already mentioned the first under the 
reigns of K'ang-hi and Yung-ching ; the egg-shell porcelain 
which reached its perfection about A.D. 1732 was a most 
delicate production ; the flambe porcelain presents the ap- 
pearance of a phiy of colours and, as we have already said^ 
of precious stones fused together ; currents of air were rapidly 



.POIICKLAIS AM) POTTEUY. 491 

directed on the vase while it was in the fire ; the Cliiucsc have 
taken their inspiration as colourists of porcehiin from nature 
whenever ricli tones or a ])hiy of colours presented them- 
selves ; the porcelain for exportation consists of several 
varieties such as J\[andarin porcelain where these function- 
aries figure as the decorations. This porcelain is sent to 
Europe and is very inferior in ciiarac'er. There is also por- 
celain Avith Persian designs for the Persian market; and 
Chinese porcelain exported and decorated in Europe. 

During the reign of Kicii-limg (A.D. 1 736-1 796 )' the ceramic 
art was brought nearly to the perfection it was left in by K'ang hi ; 
yet altogether it fell a little short. However, one artist, named T'ang, 
decorating in the five colours, surpassed all others, before or since, in 
his wonderful skill in drawing flowers and fruit. He represented 
fruit in all stages ; sometimes the skin of the ripe grape or peach was 
broken, ihe juice running on to the stand or table on which it was 
lying; even a broken bit of this porcelain is of value, while a perfect 
specimen brings a large price.' The Kien-lung as a whole is a little 
below the K'ang-hi ' in quality and decoration. There is, however, 
a gieat variety of plain reds called dragon's blood, many are fine 
specimens, but not equal to the sang-de-bocttf of the Mings, though 
perhaps better than any K'ang-hi red. Also a good turquoise was 
made but inferior to the brilliant K'ang-hi specimens, and a very large 
variety of flambes Probably this flambe was at first an accident 
caused by one colour running into another ; evidently the cue was 
taken from the accident, and a high degree of ornamentation followed. 
One of the most charming effects perhaps is produced by streaks ot 
whitish blue running down over a dragon's blood red, giving one 
something of the sensation of delightful minor music. The other 
coloured enamels are almost countless, an endless variety being 
obtained by admixture of different tints, by dusting, sprinking, and 
splashing. These enamels appear to be laid upon the porcelain while 
it is in a biscuit state, and fused at a great heat ; the firing does 
really the artist's duty in works of this class, changing the tints, com- 
bining and running them over into one another in the most fantastic 
manner. If seems every attempt was made in mixing colours to 
produce new tints ; even new colours were discovered among them, 
violet and pink. It is probable that the endeavour to get a greater 
variety of tints by mixing colours was one reason of the Kien-lung 
decoration falling short in brilliancy of the simple colour decoration 
of K'ang-hi.' 

The Seventh epoch is the present period commencing 
with A.D. 1796. It has seen no progress, but is rather a 
period of decadence, partly due to the excessive djmand for 
Chinese porcelain of any style or character in the West, and 
also as well to the diminution of artistic judgment in China. 



492 THINGS Cnih'ESE. 

The marks on Chinese porcelain chiefly consist of a date, 
or rather the name of the reign of an Emperor, or that of a 
dynasty, or both combined. The workman's name does not 
appear, as ' in China every piece passes through the hands 
of a number of workmen, each contributing his fraction to 
the decoration. All these decorators being other than the 
potter who turned the vase, and the workman who glazed 
it, no single specimen could be marked as the work of one 
man.' 

With the Chinese collector, age is the first requisite and 
beauty is a secondary consideration. It is amusing to hear 
the laughter from a Chinese crowd round a stall when the 
Chinese stall-keeper offers an ugly ginger jar of a hideous 
glaring yellow, with the recommendation of its age, and the 
European purchases it. 

Booltft recommouled: — ' Ancient Poi'oelain : a Study in Chinese 
MediiBval Industry and Trade,' by F. Hirth, Ph. D. An article on ' Chinese 
Porce'ain before the Present Dynasty' by S. W. Bushell, M.D. ' L'Art 
Chinols,' by M. Paleologue. ' An Essay on Chinese Porcelain,' by G. 0. 
Kogers, b.u.s. We are indebted to all of these in the above article. 
For a popular nia^'azine article see ' Harper's Magazine,' for April, 
1885, the paper is entitled, 'A collection of Chinese Porcelain": by 
R. Eiordan, with illustrations. ' Chinese Porcelain,' by W. G. Gulland. 
This book is finely illustrated with 485 illustrations. ' One of the 
most expensive books ever produced in America, and perhaps in the 
whole world, is a volume on Oriental Ceramic Art. The price of the 
■work is £101), and the issue is limited to .500 copies. But ^.jO.OOO will 
barely cover the cost of publication. Mr. Louis Prang, of Boston, alone 
had courage to tackle the job, which it has taken him seven years to 
accomplish. The result is said to be a triumph of skill and patience, many 
of the plates having passed forty-four times through the press. Dr. 
S. W. Bushell. the physician ta the British. Enibass)' at Peking, supplies 
the text, which is virtually a complete history of Cliinese porcelain, and 
to his judgment and zeal Mr. Walters, from whose collection the specimens 
illustrated are taken, owes many of his tinest specimens.' 

POSTS. — There was no Post Office department in the 
Chinese Government similar to our General Post Office and 
its bra'iches. The Government sent its despatches by 
means of couriers, who were under a department of the 
Board of War, and for whom relays of horses were provided ; 
the greatest speed attained by these Government couriers 
was 200 miles a day. Tliis courier service was simply for 
governmental purposes ; the common people did not share 



POSTS, 493 

in its advantages and convenience. Commercial enterprise 
provided for the general community a system of local posts 
' entirely independent of the State.' In most places, of any 
importance, letters were received by certain shops or agencies, 
(private postal agencies), and on payment of a sum, its amount 
being contingent on tlie distance the letter or parcel of silver 
had to be carried, it would probably have a good chance of 
reaching its destination. To better secure this result, it was 
sometimes customary to write on the envelope that a certain 
further sum Avould be paid to the postman on delivery, who 
had thus an incentive to try and find the addressee. The 
postage from Hongkong to Canton was twenty cash (2 cents), 
but from Hongkong to Fat-shan, which is about twelve miles 
further than Canton, it was double that amount, viz., forty 
cash ; this was one of the advantages which would h'ave 
resulted from foreigners been allowed to run steamers on all 
the inner waters of the Chinese Empire — a cheapening of the 
postal rates — for there are regular lines of American river 
steamers running between Hongkong and Canton. There 
are also steamers of the same kind running on the Yangtsz 
between Shanghai and the Riverine Ports. 

Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of the Imperial 
Maritime Customs, established a postal system between 
Peking and Shanghai, &c., which was of great benefit, not 
only to the Customs service, but to the foreign mercantile 
community. When the northern ports were ice-bound, a 
courier carried the letters : and a series of postage stamps 
were in use, of different denominations, such as one, two, 
and five candarins, having a dragon in the centre. We wrote 
some few years since that 'it is to be hoped that this will be 
the nucleus from which shall expand a general postage 
system for the whole of China.' 

This has fortunately now been taken in hand and 
an Imperial Postal Service has been instituted by 
Sir Robert Hart with Europeans at the head of it, which 
Avill doubtless in time be extended to the whole of this vast 
empire, even to its remotest corners. Different issues of 



494 THINGS CIILXESE. 

postage stamps, &c., have appeared during tlie last few 
years, some of which ;ne now rare and consequently 
expensive, and the ardent phihitelist has all the varieties 
of surcharges, &c., to delight himself with. 

JidiiJ,' vrcommcndi'd. — A shnrt nrticle in the ' Conihill Mngaziue, 
re-published in 'Tiie China Mail' of the 2Uth August, 18'Jl. 

PO-TSZ AND OTHER GAMES OF CHANCE.— 
Po-tsz is only one of the many games of chance with which the 
Chinese are fiimiliar : it is more a Hakka game than Cantonese, 
though Cantonese play it as well. Cards and dominoes are used 
like checks for umbrellas at public places of entertainment 
in England, one been handed to the gambler and one being 
kept by the holder of the gambling stall. These are placed with 
the gamblers' counters and serve to identify them as theirs; 
for counters are also used, viz., a large cash, a white, and a black, 
porcelain counter or bead, draftsmen (like Chinese chess- 
men) with the amounts they stand for cut in them. The 
amounts represented by these may, for example, be as follows — 
the cash, ten cents, white bead, |1, black do, ^5, and the rest 
^10, and so on, and stakes are made. The materials for play- 
ing pb-tsz consist of two hollow cubes of brass, the one smaller 
than the other, and fitting one into the other, and a cube of 
black wood, which fits into the smaller brass cube, but does not 
quite reach up to the open top of it, so that often a piece of 
metal is placed below it to raise it, though this is not always 
done. On each surface of the cube of wood are two characters, 
cutintothe wood and coloured white and red respectively, the 
characters are generally t'ung and pb, which are two of the char-, 
acters on a Chinese cash, as these coins Avere first used to play 
po-tsz. The first character (t''ung) iswhit^ej and the second (po) 
red; white Avins, and red loses. There is a board or table Avith 
one, tAvo, three, and four written on each side, or they 
are often not Avritten on the board, as one is always near 
the holder of the stall, two at his right hand, three 
opposite him, and four at his left hand. The cube of 
Avood is put in the smaller hollow cube of brass Avhich is 
open at one side for this reason an:l then the smaller brass 



rd-TSZ ^- OTHEli GAMES OF CHANCE. 495 

cube has tlie larger cube put over it as a cover, one side 
of tliis larger cube being also left open for that purpose. 
The owner of the gambling stall puts all these things to- 
gether unseen by the players, and then spins them round. 
Any of the players is also at liberty to do the sanio after 
he has done so. The cube must stop plumb square with the 
sides of tlie board or table and must be spun until it has 
done .bO. Then the cube is lifted oft' and whatever number 
on the board the white character is next wins, red losses. 
The cube of wood is occasionally turned round inside the 
smaller brass cube for luck, and after the holder of the stall 
has done so. the others may look at it and change it them- 
selves as well. False cubes witli loadstone in the wood, 
and iron in the larger cube are made, and a confederate, when 
lifting the cover oft' after the spin, is able to attract the 
wood in the small cube round to a more favourable side, the 
crowd being hoodwinked, or prevented from seeing what is 
going on, by the confederates. The stakes on the white side 
of the metal, of course, win. 

Fax-t'an is more widely known by the European 
resident in China. Stakes arc laid on the number of cash 
that will be left, whether one, two, or three, after raking out, 
four at a time, a number of casii from under aud round an 
upturned bowl. 

The Wai Sing Lottery. — Another well-known form of 
gambling is the Wai Sing Lottery M'hich is based on the 
Government Civil Service Examinations. Some time before 
the examination, the monopolist, who runs the lottery, finds 
out the surnames of the candidates of a certain district, and 
the players select twenty names on which to stake, having 
previously endeavoured to find out for their own guidance 
the capabilities of the candidates, Having made their 
selection, they send in the names and receive a receipt or 
ticket. These tickets are differently priced, but a book with 
half-dollar tickets amounts to ;$500, as each book contains a 
thousand tickets. Of this money, ^50 goes to the monopolist 
for expenses, leaving three prizes of $300, $100, and $50 



496 THINGS CHINESE. 

respectively, subject to be reduced by a ten per cent, com- 
mission and a further deduction of a considerable amount 
for the expenses of printing tl)e books and distributing the 
prizes. The winners are, of course, those who have the 
highest number of names of successful candidates on their 
tickets. A perusal of our article on Examinations will show 
that, from the limited number allowed to pass at an examina- 
tion, the element of chance must enter very largely into this 
lottery, and this, notwithstanding the efforts to obtain some 
idea of the attainments and capabilities of the candidates. 

Pak Kop Piu is the name of another well-known 
lottery. Eighty characters (words) at the beginning of 'The 
Thousand Character Classic ' are printed on a flyleaf (tlie 
characters in this book are largely used by the Chinese as 
numbers, or as we might use the letters of the alpiiabet in 
English to distinguish objects. No two characters in the 
book are alike), and twenty of them are winning numbers. 
A ticket to cover ten characters may cost four cash, and, if 
less tlian five characters are winning numbers, the gambler 
loses his four cash, wliile if he has five winning characters, 
he makes a profit of a cash or so ; each additional winning 
character adds immensely to his gains till they culminate in 
ten taels, should all liis characters be winning numbers. 

The Tsz-FA Lottery has, in place of numbers, the names 
of thirty six ancient Chinese celebrities ; the prices for a name 
running from one cash upwards. The prizes of the winning 
names amount to thirty times the prices paid for them. 
Khyming themes are issued which disclose in an enigmatical 
manner, to those who may be able to make a lucky guess, the 
winning name. Women, however, trust often tc dreams to 
guide them in their selection ; but the men rely on their 
knowledge of history and the incidents in the life of the 
celebrities, to make a good selection. 

Anotlier very common gambling amusement, and one 
often seen on the streets, is staking on the number of seeds 
in an orange. If a number of Chinese are seen surrounding 



Pd-TSZ S,' OTHER GAMES OF CHANCE. 497 

a fruit hawker's stock of oranges in Hongkong, it will gener- 
ally be found that this form of gambling is the attraction. 
Each player has a good look at the orange, a loose-skinned 
one, and makes a guess at the number of seeds in it, staking 
his money accordingly. After all have staked, the fruit- 
dealer skins the orange and opens each division so as to 
count the pips carefully. The one that guesses right wins 
treble the amount of his stakes, whilst the two nearest iu 
their guesses to him each win double theirs. 

But time would fail to enumerate and describe all the 
different modes of gambling resorted to on street stalls : some 
known in the West, and some entirely Chinese or Oriental. 
The Chinaman is deeply imbued with the spirit of gambling. 
He is brought up to it from his earliest youth, by first 
venturing a cash or two when buying a ' sweety,' a cake, 
or fruit; the women spend much of their ignorant leisure in 
games spiced by the naughtiness of bets and stakes ; while 
the coolies amuse their unemployed moments by winning or 
losing their hard-earned cash on a game of chance ; the 
gambling sheds in the purlieus of the cities are always 
swarming with votaries, and at New Tear time a saturnalia 
of gambling is indulged in by all, even by those who reli- 
giously abstain from it at other times. 

Of games of dice the Chinese have several, played with 
different numbers of dice of different sizes. The spots on 
them range from one to six, and are arranged in the same 
way as on European dice and those of ancient Greece and 
Rome, but the four and the one are red on the Chinese and 
the other numbers black. The dice are thrown generally 
into a bowl, which is sometimes set into a casing of chunam 
( inside a tin box) to deaden the sound. 

Kox MiN Yoxa ' driving or pursuing sheep,' is played 
with six dice and by any number of players. Single and 
double stakes are deposited on the table and up to any 
amount, the different throws of the dice deciding whether 
the players shall win or lose singles or doubles. 

2 M 



498 THINGS CHINESE. 

Hau luk is played with three dice, tlie principle of this 
game and the hist being much the same otlierwise. 

Chak t'in kau is pLayed with two dice. ' In this game 
the twenty-one throws that can be made with two dice 
receive different names, and are divided into two series or 
suits, called man (mun) " civil " and mo, " military." ' 

Chox(j Yux CirAT. Little bundles of bamboo tallies 
with Chinese characters on tliem are found for sale in certain 
shops, and these are employed in playing this game. The 
word ch'au means a tally and Chong-yiui is the Optimus at 
the Han-lin examination (See Article on Examinations). 
'Two or more persons may play, using six dice and sixty- 
three bamboo tallies ' each drawing the tally, or tallies, he is 
entitled to from his throw of the dice, '' the one who counts 
highest becomes the winner.' 

The Shing Kun t'o, the celebrated game of 'The 
Table of the Promotion of Officials' is another famous game 
which 'is played by two or more persons upon a large paper 
diagram, on which are printed the titles of the different 
officials and dignitaries of the Chinese Government. The 
moves are made by throwing dice, and the players, whose 
positions upon the diagram are indicated by notched or 
coloured splints, are advanced or set back, according to their 
throws. ' 

Chinese Dominoes. — There are thirty-two dominoes in 
a set, there are duplicates of each domino, and no blanks. 
Several games are played with dominoes and dice; they seem 
rather complicated. Shap-tsai, Pai-Kau, and T'in Kau, are 
names of such games. 

Chinese Cards. — 1 he cards used for playing the game 
of Ch'ti-kam have the same name as dominoes, and have the 
same number of spots on them. Tliey are long narrow bits 
of pasteboard about the size of a small finger. The pack 
contains thirty-two cards. In the game of Ngau-p'di the 
pack contains thirty-six cards, and the cards are about two 



PinMlTlVE MAN. 499 

inches in Icngtli and halt" an incli wide. It is said to be a 
very ancient game, and was first phiyed by cowherds, hence 
its name ' cow-cards ; ' such, at least, is the Chinese account 
of the origin of the name. 

Jioohx rcrowwi-ndi'tl. — 'A Rook on riiiiicsi^ Ganu's of Cli.aiU'C ' by Nsj 
Kwai-sliiinjr. ' C'hinose Games wiili Dice,' by Stewart diilin, a. paper 
intended to be the lirst of a series on dominoes, playing-cards, and chess. 

PRIMITIVE MAN. — It is impossible in our present 
state of knowledge to write an article on this subject. The 
whole matter is at present uninvestigated as regards China. 
One or two little discoveries have been made which show 
undoubtedly that relics of man in his earlier stages of want 
of civilisation are to be found in China. There may be 
some faint attempts in the earlier records of the Chinese to 
describe man in his original condition, but it is impossible 
to separate out any grains of wheat amidst all thechaff of myth 
and fable of these early stories The Chinese are very fond of 
collecting antiquities — ancient bricks even claim their atten- 
tion, and when once they arc put on the right course by 
western scientists they will no doubt be able to add to our 
knowledge of early man and even some skull to rival the 
Neanderthal may yet be found in China, or rudimentary 
attempts at drawing be discovered. Mr. Baber obtained a 
polished stone axehead of serpentine and a good specimen of 
one of polished flint in his journey of exploration in Western 
Sz-chuan. Yunnan is another province where celts may be 
found. A writer in 'Notes and Queries on China and Japan,' 
also mentions having had a bronze celt brought to him. 

The Chinese still retain many of the customs associated 
with the remotest antiquity, amongst which may be cited the 
'adoration of stones as objects of worship which has been a 
prominent feature of barbarian religion.* and the universal 
prevalence of ancestor worship in the 'all under heaven' as 
the empire is called. 

PRINTING. — The Chinese classics, which form the 
foundation of a great portion of Chinese literatuie, also 
gave the first hint to the Chinese for printing. Thcv were 

^2 M 2 " 



500 THINGS CHINESE. 

engraved on stone, A.D. 177, and impressions (or possibly 
rubbings) taken from them. Printing from wooden blocks, 
the system now in general use throughout the Empire, 
was known as early as A.D. 581-618, being practised during 
the course of the next three hundred years in the T''ang 
dynasty; and Avas adopted by Imperial order in reproducing 
the classics in A.D. 952, thus anticipating Caxton's'discovery 
in Europe by about five centuries. The wood used for the 
* blocks,' as they are technically called, is generally that of 
the pear or plum. It is cut into small slabs about the size of 
a foolscap sheet of paper and about the thickness of an inch 
or less. These are soaked for some time in water. The book 
to be printed is written out most carefully by a good writer in 
the square form of the character employed in printing, and 
then pasted face downwards on the block ; the block-cutter 
with his wetted finger rubs off the paper, leaving the 
impression; he then, with different graving instruments, and 
a piece of wood to act as a mallet, cuts away, to the depth 
of a quarter of an inch or so, all the surface of the wood 
which is not covered by the writing, thus leaving the 
writing in relief; the block is often cut on the under 
surface as well, and can thus be printed from on both sides. 
Each surface of the block generally contains two pages of 
the Chinese book to be printed. This done the block is 
delivered to the printer who, adjusting it on a table in front 
of him with nails and pads of paper, prepares to print. 
Sitting down in front of the block, at his right hand is a 
board with a curiously shaped circular brush on it, the 
handle being also round, and thick enough to be grasped 
comfortably by the hand. The whole brush looks some- 
thing like a bouquet of flowers turned upside down. An 
earthen crook with liquid ink is next to the ink-board, and 
a small biush, something like a diminutive circular carpet 
broom, M'ith a long handle, lies in it. Beyond the block is 
a pile of paper cut into the right shape, that is, a little 
larger than the block. Within convenient reach is a pad 
made of coir, perfectly smooth on the surface; the brushes 
are likewise made of the same fibre. These then are the 



PRINTING. :A)\ 

printer's primitive materials. Ready to begin work he 
takes up a quantity of ink on to tlic ink-board with the 
small brush ; after which he works this ink into the large 
circular brush and then rubs it all over the surface of the 
block ; putting down the brush he adroitly takes hold of the 
two nearest corners of the topmost sheet of paper, lifting it 
by the thumb and forefinger of each hand, giving it a jerk 
at the same time in order to keep it from falling limp; 
judging by his eye how much margin to leave, he lays it 
neatly on the surffice of the block, and lifting the pad or 
pressing brush, he passes it deftly and lightly over the 
paper, exerting sufficient pressure for an impression to be 
taken. Printers get to be very quick at this work ; it is easily 
learned. A good block-cutter gets a dollar per thousand 
characters cut. After about sixteen thousand impressions 
arc taken off, the blocks get somewhat worn, but they can be 
retouched, when another ten thousand can be printed from 
them. It is a cheaper mode of printing a few small books 
than by metallic type, as the initial expense is slight com- 
pared with that of providing founts of type and expensive 
presses ; the blocks for a large book take up a great deal of 
room and are very cumbersome and easily destroyed by 
insects. There is a softness and mellowness about tlie char- 
acter which is wanting in the clear cut metallic type. 

P/j'OF^i?/?^.— It has been said that' a Chinese pro- 
verb is something almost, if not utterly, indefinable. Of 
course it bears, in several features, a strong likeness to other 
branches of the family in various countries ; but, of '•' that 
sententious brevity,"' which is said to ''constitute the prin- 
cipal beauty of a proverb '" — of that brevity, without obs- 
curity, which is said to be the very soul of a proverb, it is 
often totally lacking. Other features it has which are pe- 
culiarly its own, and which impart to it a terseness, beauty, 
and symmetry, inimitable, at least in the English language. ' 

Proverbs are very numerous in China. Wo gi\e the few 
following sanqjles : — 



502 THINGS CHINESE. 

' To make a niim of yourself you imist toil : if yMi don't, yoii won't. ' 
'Strike a flint, and you'll get tire: strike it not, and y<iu'll not get 

even smoke. ' 
■No pains no gains' is represented by 'never was a good work done 

without mneh trouble.' 
' If an ox won't drink, you can't made liiin bend down his head.' 
' Everything is difticult at first.' 
' Done leisurely, done well.' 

' It is ea.=ier to know how to do a thing than to do it.' 
' Cheap thing are not good ; good things are not cheap.' 
' Better take eight hundred than give cretlit for a thousand cash." 
' All unskilful fools. 

' Quarrel with their tools.' 
' Two of a trade hate one another.' 

' Our daily bread depends on Heaven. ' 

' There is dew for every blade of grass. ' 

' A stick's a stick whether short or tall. 
' A man's a man whether g-reat or small. ' 

' As the twig is bent the mulberry grows.' 

' There are pictures in poems, and poems in pictures.' 

' Learning is far more precious than g-old.' 

' You cannot open a book without learnina: something.' 

' You may study to old age and yet have things to learn.' 

' No pleasure equals the pleasure of study.' 

' Some study shows the need of more." 

' Extensive reading is a priceless treasure.' 

' Strike while the iron's hot.' 

' To persuade gentlemen not to gamble is to win for them.' 

'The two words pure and leisure no monej' can buy.' 

' Man's life is truly a performance." 

' Wine is a discoverer of secrets.' 

' Speak carefully and be slow to speak." 

' He who talks much must err : he excels who says nothing.' 

' True g-old fears no fire.' 

*He has the mouth of a Buddha, the heart of a snake.' 

' The human heart is bad to fathom ' 

' Do good, reg-ardless of consequences.' 

Boohn rerommcndeJ.—" k CoWeGtion. of Chinese Proverbs" by Rev. 
"W. Scarborough. • Chinese Proverbs ' by Rev. A. Smith. ' Enigmatic 
Parallelisms of the Canton Dialect' in 'China Review.' Vols. XVI. and. 
XVII.. by Rev. T. W. Pearce and the Hon. J. H. Stewart-Lockhart. 
' Chinese Proverbs in the Amoy Vernacular.' in • The China Review.' Vol. 
XV, p. 29S. • Chinese Proverbs." an article in ' The China Review.' Vol. 
XX, pp. l.")(i-16fi, contains Hakka and Swatow i)ro verbs by M. Schaub and 
Miss C. M. Ricketts. 

RACE, — The Chinese as a nation are not of pure blood 
--What nation is "? Doubth?ss, when the present inhabitants 
of China poured into the land they absorbed some at least 
of the original inhabitants, the ^liao and the Man. while 
later, in historic times, "large immigrations or bands of cap- 
lives consisting of Tibetans, Huns, and the Mongolic Hienbi,' 
liavc each furnished their quota towards the amalgam, to 



HACK. 503 

say nothing of Manchu Tartars and others. Tliose and 
climatic conditions have probably had something to do in 
difforontiating the Soutliorn Chinaman from the Northern, 
the former being well described by Ross as •' short, smiill, 
* cute,' and tho latter as 'tall, stout, stolid, and slow." 

This amalgamation of aborigines and Chinese goes on 
slightly still on tho borders of the habitats of tho former, 
as a few Chinese are to be found who have married wives 
from the different tribes. (See Article on Chinese, Physical 
Characteristics of). 

7?.-l/LIFzir»S*. — China would seem to be an ideal land 
for a gigantic system of railways, for it is a ' land of magni- 
ficent distances'; but it is also a land of "stupendous pre- 
judices'; it is therefore not surprising that the railway is in 
its infancy in China. 'Europe has a mile of railway for every 
2,400 inhabitants; China has not even a mile for every mill- 
ion of her inhabitants.' The splendid waterways afford great 
facilities for transit, and 'China is better supplid Avith water- 
ways, both natural and artificial, than any other country in 
the world, except, perhaps, Holland '; but away from them 
carriage by land is often expensive. It sometimes costs 
two shillings per ton per mile to take coal by land in China, 
while in Great Britain the cost is a halfpenny to one penny 
a mile a ton, and in the United States a farthing for the same 
amount for the same distance. The coalfields in China have 
been laid down on a grand scale. To instance only one, 
that of Shansi, which has a continuous field 13 500 miles in 
area, of anthracite, equal to the best Pennsylvanian, with from 
15 to 40 feet seams. There is also a rich bituminous deposit 
in the same province : so that in the mere carriage of coal 
there should be a fine future for railways in China ; added 
to which there would be the passenger traffic, the goods 
trains, and those laden with market produce, &c., &c., &c. 

About fijrty years ago Sir R. Stephenson come out in 
the hope of being able to inaugurate a general railway 
system. All the foreign communities in China were naturally 



504- THINGS CHINESE. 

in favour of such a scheme ; one or two individuals pointed 
out that the Chinese were not ready for it, and would not be 
for a long time to come, and, such being really the case, 
of course, nothing could be d mo. 

In 1876, a short line of railway, 10 miles long, was con- 
structed under the auspices of an English firm, and ran 
between Shanghai and Woosung at the mouth of the Shanghai 
River. There was considerable traffic, but the Chinese 
Government objected to its being in the hands of foreigners ," 
they therefore bought it and closed it in 1877 ; further they 
took it up, and transferred rails and rolling stock to the 
Island of Formosa, where they lay rusting for some years, 
A railway was constructed in Formosa by the Chinese ; and 
this material and rolling stock found use in this then outlying 
island of the Chinese empire where the harm it might do 
would be too far off to affect the stability of the mighty 
dominions of the Son of Heaven ; the Chinese also thus 
having the control of it in their own hands (A history of the 
Woo-sung railway appears in the ' Hongkong Daily Press ' 
of the 27th September, 1'892). This line between Shanghai 
and Woosung is now reconstructed, and was opened in 1898. 

The next line, after this first Woosung Railway, was from 
the coal mines at Kai-ping to the sea coast, whence it was, 
carried on to the forts at Taku. It was first opened for carry- 
ing coals to the canal bank, but has now developed into a very 
large concern, and it may almost be said the whole welfare 
of the adjacent country depends on it. The investment has 
turned out to be very profitable. This railway was of invalu- 
able use to the Chinese fur the movement of troops during 
the Japanese war, but its construction had to be stopped during 
tlie conflict between the two nations. Trains 1,000 feet long- 
have not been an uncommon sight on it. 

The foUowinij was written some time asro: — ■ 

For some time past the construction has been going on (and it 
will show a few of the difficulties that stand in the way of the develop- 
ment of railways in China) of 'an Imperial railway, which is intended 
eventually to connect Tientsin with Kirin in Manchuria. Ninety-four 



If AIL WAYS. 505 

miles (from Tientsingto Kuych) have been in working order since 1891, 
and during 1892 carried 488,300 passengers.' Tiic line has 'been 
extended at the rate of fifty miles per annum.' 

At the principal terminus, Tientsin, about 100 Chinese clerks 
are employed, of whom about one-half are alleged to be totally 
unnecessary, 'being friends and hangers on.' At other stations the 
same condition of affairs obtains. 'The first-class fares are a 
little over one halfpenny a mile, and the second a decimal over a 
farthing. Tlie third-class fares are even cheaper still. The fares for 
the entire year (1892) from all classes, over the ninety-four miles above 
mentioned, were only _a^ 10,000, taking the tacl at its par value of 66-. 8d. 
The receipts, according to Consul Brenan's interesting report, from all 
sources, were only about 226,000 taels, or ;^75,5oo, and even these 
figures are, at the current rate of exchange, too high.' 

'Native capitalists have but little confidence in the "Imperial 
line " as an investment. Moreover, no accounts are issued to show how 
money is expended. A Government grant of about ;^6oo,ooo a year 
maintains the construction of the line, which is being completed for 
strategical reasons only, although the original idea was to treat it 
solely as a commercial undertaking. What with corruption, bad 
management, and a virtual boycott on the part of capitalists, the 
prospects of success do not seem very promising. ' It is the intention 
of the Railway Administration to build a subsidiary line to Moukden, 
while the main line north will be continued on to Kirin '- ■■■' * , 
From Lanchow, another line westwards is contemplated to north of 
Tungchow (near Peking) and thence to Paotung-fu, the capital of 
Chihli province.' 

'The Kaiping Coal Co's. line, at first intended only to carry coal 
to the canal bank, has been extended to Tientsin and is open to 
passenger traffic. An extension of the Tientsin line to Shanhai- 
kwan 'where the great wall reaches the sea has been completed, and 
a line from Linsi to Newchwang and then to Kirin has been 
sanctioned [see below]. A line from Tientsin to Pekin was opened 
in 1897 which now, by the addition of an electric tram, takes one up to 
the very gates of Peking, in fact to the Yung Ting Gate.' 

With the Chinese Government, considerations of defence 
would have proved more effective in causing the construction 
of railways than anything else. Even the short line in 
existence in the North proved useful in a small rebellion that 
took place lately. 

' The great object of the Chinese Government in making rail- 
ways is to secure facilities for moving troops and munitions of war, 
not to promote trade or encourage industries.' 

Every new railway project in China appears to have had 
a hard tussle at its inception. There was a progressive party 
in favour of the iron road ; there was another party opposed to 

2 N 



506 THINGS CHINESE. 

progress, conservative officials who deprecated the introduc- 
tion of all foreign inventions. Both parties were united ap- 
parently in the idea of preventing all foreign intervention. 
The Chinese, fearful of foreign influence in their country, 
would not brook any interference in the way of any 
development of railway schemes for China until compelled 
to permit them. ' China for the Chinese ' was their 
motto ; and for fear that an alien authority might be set up 
in their midst, tliey turned a deaf ear to all entreaties for 
permission to construct lines. So far did they carry these 
precautions, tlmt they resolved to smelt their own ore 
and make their own rails, buying as little as possible in the 
foreign market. If this resolution had been adhered to, it would 
probably have been many years before railway lines of any great 
magnitude were in running order. Extensive iron-works were 
set up in the neighbourhood of Hankow with this end in view, 
and a small line for the transportation of iron ore was 
laid at Hankow : it was called the Ta-ye Railway, and 
ran to Huang-si-kan : a distance of sixty li (twenty miles). 
Looming up in the far distant future there was the Grand 
Trunk line from Peking via Wuchang to Canton. Whether 
this railway would really be commenced this century, or 
indefinitely postponed, was doubtful. The Viceroy, who 
had the undertaking in hand — after having spent enormous 
sums of money on the initial stages of the work as outlined 
above — was getting into serious financial difficulties, and it was 
very questionable whether ho would be able to proceed much 
further for there was no capital for building railways in China : 
the government had not the money available ; would not 
borrow it from foreigners ; nor allow private enterprise. 
Another proposal some years ago was for a line to 
be constructed from Canton to Sham-shui-po near the 
Cosmopolitan Docks in British territory, on the mainland 
opposite Hongkong. Surveys were made, and permission 
granted for its construction, but the project fell into 
abeyance. It Avas to have passed through the important 
town of Shek-lung, as well as other places, running a total 
length of 380 li, or about 127 miles. But, like th3 other 



RAIL WAYS. 507 

I'ailways. no foreigners were to hold shares in it. Later, a 
railway Avas projected between Swatow and the prefectorial 
city of Ch'aochow-fii. Hopes were entertained that this line, 
of some thirty miles, more or less, would be the precursors of 
other short lines in the south of China, but they have been 
doomed to disappointment. 

The last paragraph shows one stage (the second, the first 
being the strongest opposition to them as shown above) in the 
liistory of railway enterprise in China. Since then great 
changes have taken place, and for some time little has been 
heard in connection with China but spheres of influence and 
railways, mining and other concessions : Russia, France, 
Germany, and England, as well as other countries, all knock- 
ing at China's doors. 

It is intended to join the Russian system of railways and 
those of China together: with Manchuria as a Russian sphere 
of influence, this will be easily effected. France appears 
desirous of penetrating China with her railways from her 
Indo-Chinese empire next Yunnan, while many English are 
desirous that British lines shall develope the West of China 
in connection with our Asiatic empire. 

The whole history of the difl"erent railway concessions 
is thus described in the report of the China Association for 
1898-1899:- 

' Having selected their respective spheres [of influence] the 
Powers proceeded as it were by tacit consent to mark them ofT by 
Railway and Mining Concessions. Russia had set the example in 
an Agreement (dated September, 1896) for the construction of an 
" Eastern Chinese Railway " system in Manchuria. 

France had followed by requesting the Tsung-li-Yamen in June 
1897 to promise that the Chinese Government would address itself to 
the Fives-Lille Company for prolongations of the Langson-Lungchow 
line toward Nanning and Pese, and would invite the aid of French 
Engineers for the opening of mines in Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and 
Yunnan. 

Pursuing this assertion of interest in the provinces bordering on 
Tongking, she exacted, in May, 1898, the concession of a railway 
from Pakhoi to a point on the West River, with the ulterior right of 

2 N 2 - 



508 THINGS CHINESE. 

making any future lines radiating from Pakhoi. — The occasion was 
taken by the Association to emphasise the protest which had been 
made in April against this assertion of French influence in a province 
which constitutes, commercially, as well as geographically, the 
hinterland of Hongkong. 

An -American Syndicate has obtained a concession for the 
Southern extension of the Great Trunk line— from the banks of the 
Yangtsze opposite Hankow to Canton ; and Sir Claude MacDonald has 
obtained, finally, the concession of a right to make a railway from 
Canton to the coast (Kowloon) opposite Hongkong. 

Various other concessions of less political, but of considerable 
financial importance, have been made. The Russo-Chinese bank has 
undertaken to make a branch from Chengting (a city on the Lu-Han 
line, in Pechili) to Taiyuen, the capital of Shanse. 

A Syndicate combining British and Italian interests has obtained 
extensive mining rights in Shanse, coupled with the right of railway 
outlet to the Han river at Siang-yang. 

A British subject, Mr. Pritchard Morgan, has entered into an 
agreement having for its object the development of mines and con- 
comitant railways in Szechuen. France is understood to have 
protested that this arrangement is inconsistent with the undertaking 
not to seek exclusive privileges in South-West China, concluded 
between the two Governments * * but the protest appears 

strained * * * *. 

Broadly speaking, therefore, China has been partitioned into 
spheres of industrial interest that may become spheres of political 
influence in certain eventualities which the present regime appears 
not unlikely to precipitate.' 

'An Anglo-Italian syndicate has obtained the right to construct 
the line from Joyau in Hupeh to Taochau in Shansi, and Messrs. 
Jardine, Matheson & Co., have secured rights over the line from 
Sinyan in Honan to Nangking via Luchau in Anhui.' 

'Rivalry with England for the trade of Yunnan is being pursued 
actively in other respects, the Chamber having guaranteed a loan of 
70,000,000 frs. to be employed in making a railway up the valley of 
the Red River, to Yunnan-fu. 

Great Britain, on the other hand, has obtained permission to 
extend the Kunlon Ferry line into Yunnan. 

Germany gave it to be understood from the first, that she intended 
to keep in German hands the construction and management of railways 
in Shantung. 

In an agreement (dated 2nd September 1898) between English and 
German capitaHsts for the construction of a line between Tientsin and 
Chinkiang, the sphere of German interests is defined as the region 
watered by affluents of the Hwang-ho, and the l^nglish sphere as that 
watered by afifluenfs of the Yangtsze. From Tientsin to the southern 



RAIDVAI'S. 509 

border of Sliantung, therefore, the line will he coiUroIlcd by German, 
and the continuation across Kian;4pchby I>ritish, subjects. It followed, 
equally, that the British and Chinese Corporation obtained without 
further competition a concession for the construction of lines between 
Shanghai, Soochow, and Nanking. 

Negociations were concluded by the British and Chinese 
Corporation, about the same time, with the aid of H. M. Government 
for the proportioning of the Tientsin-Shanhaikwan line up the west 
coast of the Liao-tung Gulf to Sin-min-ting on the upper waters of the 
Liao, and to Newchwang. 

More important than all, in the eyes of the Chinese, is the 
great trunk line which is to connect Peking with Hankow. Granted 
originally to a Belgian syndicate in 1897, after some ineffectual 
negociations with American and British financiers, this concession had 
lapsed and been revived more than once before a substantial contract 
was signed, in June, with a titular Belgian Syndicate supported by 
Russo- French diplomacy. 

Both these contracts have been the subject, since, of keen con- 
troversy, on the ground, broadly, that they constitute an intrusion, in 
either case into alien spheres. A protest by the Russian Minister 
against the Newchwang agreement was met by surrendering all 
rights of mortgage over the section of the line outside the Great Wall. 
A protest by the British Minister against the signature of the Lu-Han 
contract was disregarded by the Tsungli-Yamen, and the Chinese 
Government was punished for its disregard and bad faith by the 
exaction of certain other railway concessions. As the contract gives a 
Franco-Russo-Belgian combination full right of morgtage and fore- 
closure over a line penetrating the heart of the Yangtsze Valley, it 
needs to be revised, obviously, on a similar principle, if it is carried out.' 

The following items contain further particulars as to 
some of the concessions mentioned above : — 

'The negotiations concerning the construction of the Tsin-Chin 
(Tientsin-Chinkiang) Railway, have been successfully concluded 
between England, Germany, and China. It has been arranged that 
the sections between Tientsin and Tsinan, and Tsinan and Ichau, 
shall be placed under the control of Germany, and the section between 
Ichau and Chinkiang under British control.' The railway is to be 
completed within five years. 

The loan is £7,400,000 gold, which is to be repaid in 
50 years to the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation 
and the German Bank. 'The security is the guarantee of the 
Chinese Governnient plus the railway itself.' Three Europeans 
and two Chinese are to have the manas^ement of it ; from 
Tientsin to the Southern boundaries of Shantung, it is to 
be under German control and the rest is to be under British 
control. 



510 THINGS CHINESE. 

There is a line between Tiehsanpn, in Hupeh, to a spot 
on the Yangtsze, 70 miles below Hankow, for conveying the 
iron ore from Hupeh to the ironworks at Hanyang, 

The line from Peking to Tientsin is about 75 miles long. 

There are further railway developments projected in 
Shantung, thanks to the advent of the Germans in the 
province. 

'A German railway is to be constructed from Tapadurh, near 
Kiaochow to Weihsien and then to join the Tientsin-Chinkiang main 
line. A line is also to be built from Tapadurh to Tsintao. Both 
lines will take two years in construction. They have been secured 
by a German syndicate, * * * The Weihsien branch will tap 
the rich coal district which is expected to be the mineral mainstay of 
the German sphere of interest in Shantung. Another line is to be 
constructed from Kiaochau (Tapadurh) to Ichow, and thence to the 
Tientsin-Chinkiang main line. Work on the Weihsien line com- 
menced on Friday, 2nd June,' 1899. 

The railway from Peking to Han-Kau, 'about 813 miles long, 
will pass through the three important provinces of Chi-li, Ho-nan, 
and Hupeh, ['from Peking to Hankow, about 650 miles, and 
from Hankow to Canton, about 500 miles, or about 11 50 miles in all.' 
Another writer says :—' The total length of line will be about 800 
English miles, and the capital of the syndicate four and a half 
millions sterling, represented by 225,000 shares of ;^20 each], and 
it "will serve the rich basins of the \angtsze-kiang and of the 
Hwang-ho." ' 

'With reference to the proposed Hankow-Canton railway, the 
Chief Director, Chang Taotai, formerly Consul-General at Singapore,' 
we read, 'has informed his friends that the line will begin at Canton, 
pass Fatshan to the city of Samshui, on the West River. From this 
placethetrunkline will go across and enter Hunan, joining at Hankow 
the Lu-Han Railway. From Samshui again tliere will be constructed 
branch lines ; namely, one to Kueilin, the capital of Kwangsi province, 
which will be called the Western Branch line ; while from Canton there 
will be an Eastern Branch line connecting that city with Huichow, 
thence to Swatow and Northward into Fukien province. The Viceroy 
T'an has already detailed one Battalion of 500 men of the Chien Regi- 
ment to act as a guard to the workers on the new railway which it is 
intended to begin early in May next.' [1899] 

' The party of engineers and experts of the Canton-Hankow 

Railway Syndicate have completed their survey up to Kupong in 

Punyu district, and are buying land from the owners holding title- 
deeds.' 

A survey of a projected line from Boochow to Kingpo 
via Hangchow has been made, and the Hongkong and Shang- 
hai Bank are to finance it. 



HATLWAYS. 511 

The following was written a few years ago: — 

'When the line of the Siberian Railway approaches the eastern 
shore of the Russian Empire, it is suddenly stopped by a long and broad 
wedge oi land running from south to north. This is part of the 
Chinese territory of Manchuria, probably the richest portion of the 
Chinese Empire. In the centre of it is the important fortified town of 
Kirin. the capital of the province of that name. The province of 
Kirin is prolonged to the south-west by the province of Shinking, the 
capital of which is !\Ioukden, and which ends in the long peninsula 
having the great naval base of Port Arthur for its most south-westerly 
point. The Siberian railway has to make a long detour to the north 
round this wedge, and the present treaty [1896] is intended first of all 
to enable it to avoid this by taking the chord instead of the arc. Thus 
the first advantage of Russia is to prolong its line from some point in 
Siberia, probably Nertchinsk, via Kirin, straight to Vladivostock. 
Besides this, however, Russia is now authorised to build a railway 
to join the main line at Kirin and run south-westwards, first to Port 
Arthur, and second to Shanhaikwan, which is the terminus of the 
present short railway to Tientsin. The Convention gives to Russia 
the right to carry her Trans-Siberian Railway to Kirin, the Chinese 
town of central Alanchuria, from two directions — first, some point in 
Siberia ; and second, Vladivostock. Next, Russia obtains the right to 
build a railway from Kirin to Port Arthur should China fail to do so. 

These three lines of railway are to be built with Russian money, 
and are to be defended by posts of Russian Cossacks ; they will also 
be built to the Russian gauge. Russia is to work mines in Manchuria, 
and Russian officers are to drill the Chinese troops in Manchuria.' 

With regard to the railway operations in the neighbour- 
hood of Kirin, Moukden, and Port Arthur, an opinion has 
been expressed lately that the line cannot be finished in 
less than five years on account of the scarcity of timber, and 
of workmen and labour. American pine is used, and has to be 
brought by sea, the supply of it being very limited. Wood 
is also brought from the Korean frontier, and the winter is 
likewise so severe that the Chinese labourers cannot stand it 
and have to stop work for five months in the year. 

The following extract from a recent newspaper is in- 
teresting in this connection : — ■ 

'The programme of Russian railway extension in Asia has lately 
undergone considerable revision. The original scheme of the Trans- 
Siberian Railway has been greatly modified, and it is probable that a 
portion of the proposed route through Eastern Siberia will be 
abandoned. When the line was originally authorised, the work of 
construction was commenced at both ends simultaneously, and the 
work at the Pacific terminus was inaugurated by the present Tsar, 



512 THINOS CHINESE. 

who cut the first sod of earth at Vhxdivostock on March 29th, 1891, 
The work at this end of the line has been compleled as far as 
Khabarovka — a distance of 481 miles, and here the terminus is likely 
to remain for some years to come. The alternative route authorised 
by the Manchurian Railway Agreement of 1896 will start from 
Vladivostock and will pass by way of Nicolsk and Ninguta to Tsitsihar, 
and thence across the Siberian fronther to Nerchinsk, where it will 
join the railway now under construction. The enerey with which the 
work of railway development is being pushed forward in Russian 
Manchuria is impressed on the visitor to Vladivostock from the moment 
he lands: the country for miles round swarms with parties of 
labourers engaged in the construction of earth works, the erection of 
bridges and the general work necessary to the construction of a 
railway. The labourers are convicts who have been sent to Siberia 
for vaious offences. They work under a Cossack guard, and are paid 
for their labour at the rate of one tenth of the value of the work they 
do. There are probably from 15,000 to 20,000 of these convict 
labourers at work in Machuria at the present time.' 

'Russia has demanded the right to carry a totally new branch 
of the Trans-Siberian line, or rather a feeder, from, somewhere near 
the junction of the Shilka with the Amur, south to Kalgan, •■- '- '' 
No doubt, the line to Kalgan, whether constructed from Aigun or 
Maimatchin (Kiatkha) will take off a tremendously troublesome section 
of the trans-Siberian line, and moreover it will most certainly be 
constructed, and it will as certaily be extented to connect with the 
Russian system in Shansi, which is expected she will begin to 
construct next year [1900.]' 

Railway concessions North of the Great Wall are to be 
left to Russian enterprise, and those in the basin of the 
Yangtsz to the British, but this agreement made between 
the two nations is not to infringe in any way on the rights 
acquired with regard to the Shanhaikwan-Ncwchwang line, 
though the line is to remain a Chinese line. 

'A survey has been made of a projected Burmo-China Railway 
and a feasible route for it from 'Kunlon Ferry, the proposed terminus 
oftheMandalay-Salween Railway to the Yangtsze Valley "••'• "••■'' * '■'■ 
The line would reach the Yangtsze at Luchow, about a hundred 
miles higher up the river than Chinkiang "■■' The length 

* * would be about 1,000 miles.' It 'is not only not impracti- 
cable, but its construction would present no very extraordinary 
difficulties. Ten or twelve millions sterling' would be needed. 

It must not bo supposed that because all these railways 
are planned, that railway communication is in full swing in 
China. O.io or two maps of China have been published 
lately, showing in black lines and otherwise the concessions, 
etc., and on the strength of these, two railway engine-drivers 
recently come up from Australia in the confident assurance 
of being able to obtain employment on one of these 
numerous lines of railway thus marked out. 



RELIGION. 513 

Books recommendvil. — A leader in "the Hongkong Daily Press' of 9tli 
September, 181U, gives an interesting account of the development of the 
Tientsin Ilailwa.v from a seven miles tram-line to the present dimensions. 
An interesting article has appeared in ' The Engineer,' giving an account of 
the history and construction of the railway in Formosa. It was republished 
in the • London and China Express ' and copied in ' The Honskong Telegraph' 
of the 10th of August, lSi)2. A perusal of this article will show the great 
difHculties encounted from Chinese ignorance, i)n!Judice. and bribery in 
such works. ' Kail way Enterprises in China' an article in ' Chamtiers's 
Journal' for May 1899. by IJ Taylor. 

RELIGION. — Amongst this ancient nation are to be 
found many persistent survivals of old world religions and 
myths handed down from generation to generation through 
the long ages past. Faint traces of such beliefs and modes of 
worship are to be found by the diligent enquirer in our western 
lands, but in China they form in many cases not only the basis 
on which have been superimposed the more modern systems of 
religion ; but they permeate the whole present amalgam of 
credulity, superstition, forms and ritual, which go to make up 
the average Chinaman's religion. The worship of Heaven 
and Earth, of mountains and rivers is still in existence, 
and traces of Stibianism are to be found ; the adoration and 
planting of sacred trees near temples, can be seen to this day; 
and a most common form of worship is the worship of stones, 
besides an ever present and most profound belief in evil spirits 
which cause disease, &c. 

As Gibbon said of Rome, so it might almost be said 
of China to-day: — *To the common people all religions 
are equally true ; to the philosopher all are equally false ; 
to the magistrate all are equally useful.' To the superficial 
observer the Chinese appear a very religious people, 
and yet, on closer observation, it will be found that 
there is a great deal of formalism about their worship. 
There are very superstitious ; and the whole land is full of 
idols. The women are most devout worshippers ; many of 
the educated men profess scepticism, while giving an outward 
adhesion to the forms of worship. There are some earnest 
souls to be found among them who join different sects 
of Buddhism in order to find some satisfaction for the 
longings of their hearts ; when the truths of Christianity are 

2 o 



514 THINGS CHINESE. 

presented to such, they are sometimes received as a revelation 
from heaven. 

Boohs recmnmcnded. — 'The Reliofious System of China,' by J, J. M. 
de Groot, Ph. D. See articles on Buddhism. Taonism. and Missions, and the 
books recommended at the end of those articles. 

RICE. — The Chinese language has developed a number 
of names for rice in its different stages of growth, thus 
confirming what Archdeacon Trench pointed out— the 
tendency of a language to develope in any special direction, 
Rice being the main support of the inhabitants of the 
south of China, every stage of its growth is of the greatest 
interest to them ; bat to us, who never see it in our own 
land but in the hulled grain, it is simply rice whether in 
that state, or when the tender blade is just shooting out of 
the ground, or when nearly ripe; and we have to borrow 
from a foreign language the word paddy to represent it with 
the husk on — a word, by the bye, little used or known in 
England itself, as the necessity for its use there is but slight. 
For all of these different conditions of rice, the Chinese have 
names, and again, not only does one word do duty for cooked 
rice, but the soup-like drink made from boiling a small 
quantity of rice in a large quantity of water, has a distinctive 
name of its own, chuh (pronounced chook), for which 
Europeans in the East, being at a loss for a word to express 
it, have again had recourse to the borrowing of a Malay 
word to express it, congee. 

Rice is the staple article of diet in the south of China : 
so much so, that 'to eat rice ' is synonymous with taking a 
meal ; and the equivalent of ' How do you do ? is ' Have you 
eaten your rice yet ? ' 'He cannot eat his rice ' is tantamount 
to saying that a sick man is unable to take his food. Break- 
fast is cliiu-fdn, morning rice, and ye-fan, or man-fan, 
evening rice, stands for dinner. With regard to its use as 
food in the extreme South, we refer our readers to our article 
on Food in this book. 

The rice grows in small patches, scarcely entitled to be 
called fiekls. As the rice ijrows best in water, tliese are 



JiWTS. 515 

undei" a few inches of water the most of the time. There are 
no fences or walls between them, but the mud is piled up all 
round each little division of ground, and, drying in the sun, 
forms a narrow footpath only wide enough for one person to 
walk on. When the rice plant, which has been thickly sown 
in one place, is six inches high, it is transplanted into the 
miniature fields by men and w^omcn Avading through the mud, 
and five or six of these sprouts are stuck into one hole. In 
a very short time the fields present a beautiful sight, being 
converted from the muddy flats into masses of living, delicate 
green. Two, or sometimes even three, crops of rice, or other 
plants, succeed one another — a crop of fish is put into the 
field when they, the fish, are a few inches long, to fatten for 
the market while the rice is growing. 

The Chinese prefer their own rice to that grown in 

foreign countries. There are several varieties of this useful 

grain, coarse and fine, white and red, glutinous and non- 
glutinous. 

At New Year's time popped rice is largely used, and is 
carried about the streets in large baskets, looking like snow 
in its whiteness. It is prepared in the same way as the 
popped Indian corn, or maize, of the New England States, 
and is very much like it in appearance. 

About Swatow and Amoy more congee is eaten than at; 
Canton and neighbourhood, while, up North, millet takes the 
place of rice. 

Book t'crom mended. — For an iiiterestiug account ol" rice the world 
round see Rhein's ' Industries of Japan,' p. H7. 

RIOTS. — The Chinese have acquired an unenviable 
notoriety of late years for riots directed against foreign 
residents at different treaty ports and cities. In their 
intensity and wild outburst they resemble the cyclonic 
disturbances, the typhoons, Avhich carry death and destruction 
in their train. As before the typhoons premonitory symptoms 
are geneniUy observable in a disturbed state of the atmosphere, 
so before these riots there is a heated state of opinion, which 
those who are in touch with the native mind may discover. 

2 2 



51G THINGS CHINESE. 

To those not intimately acquainted with the Chinese it 
may be supposed that as the proverbial Irishman is never 
happy unless he is in the midst of a row, so the Chinese are 
only in their native element Avhen rushing in hordes against 
the defenceless European or American. To say that tlie 
Chinese are peaceful law-abiding subjects seems preposterous 
when writing about Chinese riots, but such a statement, 
nevertheless, is the truth ; for they are one of the most 
peaceful nations in the world. The Chinese, from a European 
standpoint, is made up of a mass of incongruities, the most 
opposite traits of character are to be found in juxtaposition ; 
and this same quiet Chinaman is a perfect demon, a yelling 
infuriated brute, a monster of destruction, ia a riot ; rapine, 
robbery, arson, and murder, all rapidly succeed each other at 
such a time, the howling mob ravening like wild beasts as 
they run wanton with life and property. 'There is no fear 
of Got in a riot,' so according to Shakespeare said Sir 
Hugh Evans. 

What are the causes that transform the law-abidinsf 
Chinaman into a demon of destruction ? We propose to 
mention what we consider to be some of them. It must 
first be taken into consideration that the Chinese as a mass 
are wofully ignorant of the commonest scientific facts which 
are taught to our children at school. When they find that 
we are able to rush along at the rate of sixty miles an hour 
in railways ; when they see steamers go without wind and 
against the tide; when they hear some vague rumour of 
Westerners being able to see millions of miles into the sky, 
or on the other hand minutely examine some insect and 
make it as large as a buff"alo ; when they see tumours cut 
off and legs and arms amputated by the skilful surgeon; it is 
comparatively easy for them to believe that these magic- 
working foreigners can look several inclies into the ground 
and discover precious metals, especially since their own 
geomancers pretend to the same power ; (the author himself, 
when on a trip in tlie interior, was asked if he did not possess 
this power), and further, with sucli people, it does not require 



nroTs. 517 

much stretch of the imagination to believe the story that 
foreigners, who are all blue-eyed, require the black eyes 
of Chinese children to compound their wonder-working 
medicines, or the eyes of dead Chinese to transform lead into 
silver. It will thus be seen that, owing to this dense 
ignorance, they are credulous to an extreme extent. They 
will believe almost any and everything. It must also be 
remembered that we are foreigners to them — enemies Ave 
have been at various times; and, unfortunately, in our 
relations with them, we have sometimes been overbearing ; 
the nation looks upon us as the introducers of opium ; 
the officials and literati fear our science and civilisation 
will overturn theirs, and most of the mandarins are afraid 
that these will put an end to their corrupt system of govern- 
ment and their profits ; some dread that we will eventually 
wrest their country from them. Besides, of late years, a 
knowledge of the shutting of foreign countries, such as 
America and Australia, against Chinese immigration is be- 
coming known : to Avhich must be added the fact that the 
mass of foreigners do not understand the Chinese, at times 
fearing designs from them when they are to be trusted, and 
implicitly trusting them when they are acting with duplicity: 
and we, unfortunately, do not always act with sufficient care 
in our intercourse with them, for our motives are often mis- 
understood and our actions misconstrued. We are stransre. 
grotesque, bizarre objects in their eyes, our every action 
outre, and sinister motives are readily ascribed to such 
curious beings as we appear to them — devils as they call us. 
Given all this material, it needs but the dissemination of lying 
books against some foreigners, issued with the imprimatur of 
high officials ; it requires but an incipient rebellion in the 
throes of its attemped birth ; it wants but a few lewd felloAVs 
of the baser sort to start a riot ; the apathetic, indifferent, 
and half-sympathising mandarins take care, as a rule, to keep 
out of the way until the mischief is done, while their soldiery, 
as often as not, lend a hand in the plundering of compounds, 
the dismantling of houses. And yet it is wonderful how an 
armed little force, consisting only of the mercantile residents, 



518 THINGS CHINESE. 

a do/en or a score of men, it' resolutely facing. the packed 
mass of the infuriated mob breathing out death and destruc- 
tion, can, with scarcely firing a shot, disperse the armies of 
the aliens like smoke. 

The question naturally arises : — What is the remedy for 
all this ? We believe nothing but a determined front presented 
by all the foreign powers, an insistence on the opening up of 
more of the country, the continual presence of at least one gun- 
boat at every treaty port, and, should a riot take place, the 
carrying out of the threat once made at Hankow^ that Imperial 
property would be fired on. If the officials found their 
yamens bombarded as sure as a riot took place, and one 
or two of their most prominent members seized and carried 
off to the gun-boat, we believe that riots would cease. This 
would be a more effective punishment than the destruction 
of defenceles villages or towns, as the inhabitants in many 
esses are but tools in the hands of designing knaves. The 
Chinese officials always cry non possimius until they know 
they must do what is required of them. The true secret of 
dealing with the Chinese, and that which has always been 
successful in the past, is firmness, kindness towards them 
at all times, but no shilly-shallying ; consideration and 
sympathy, with a fixed resolution, and a determination that 
the demands, granted they are right, shall be acceded to, and 
that at once. 

W^e give a list of a few of the more notable riots : — 

December 7th, 1842. — European factories at Canton destroyed by a mob. 

.June 21st. 1870. — Riot at Tientsin and massacre of R. C. nuns. 

May -tth. 187-1. — Riot in French Concession. vShanghai. 

September 10th. 1883. — Riot by Chinese mob in Canton. Great destruction 

of foreign houses and propertj- on Shameen. 
October 3rd, 1884. — Serious coolie riot in Hongkong. 
October 4th. 18S4. — -Attaelv on foreigners at Wenchow. 
July 1st, 188(). — Serious riot at Chunglving. 
Februarj' .")tli, 1881*. — -Anti-foreign riot at Cluulviang : foreign lioiises 

burned and looted. 
May 13th, 1891. — Anti-foreign riot at Wuhu. Catlioiic nussion jiremises. 

I.M. Custon) House, and British Coiisulate ])urued and looted. 
May 18th. ISIU, — Anti-foreig-n riot in the Hochow district. Auti-foreijn 

riot at Ngau-kiu. 



lilOTS. 519 

May 2."th, 1891, — Anti-foreisn riot at Ngan-kiii. Somo. foreij,'n houses 

burned and looted. 
June 1st, 18ltl. — Anti-foreign riot at Tan.van,?. 20 miles from Chinlviang. 

Catholic i>roperty destroyed, 
.lune r)th, 1S91. — Anti-foreign riot at Wiisueli. near Hankow. Foreign 

pro|>erty destroyed. l!ev. Mr. Argent, Wesleyan Missionary, and 

Mr. Green, of the Imperial Maritime Custom's service, Ivilled. 
June Tth. 1S91. — Attempted .-inti-foreign riot at Kiukiiing. 
June 8th, IH'.ll. — D.'struction of French Missionaries' property at Woo-.sih, 

near Foochow. by anti-forei<>'n mob. 
June 9th, 18itl. — Attack on mission premises at Sdoeliow. llioters dispersed. 
June 14th, 1S91. — Mission property burned down at Shah-si. 
June 20th, 1891. — lliot at Ha-mieii City on tlie Vangtsz. Catliolic property 

destroyed, 
June 2.')th and 2fitli. 18'.ll. — Riots attempted at Tsing'-kiang-pu and Himau-fu 

on the Grand Canal, but suppressed. 
June .SOth, 1891. — A mob loots and burns down Catholic chai)el and schools 

at Yan-kao near Tuuf^-chovv on the Vangtsz. 
July 1891, — Riot at Viin-yang-shien, about half-way between Ichangand 

Chungking, 
Sept. 2nd 1891, — Riot at Ichang. Nearly all foreign property destroyed, 
July 1st, 1893. — Two Swedish Missionaries murdered at Sungpu, in Central 

China, by mob. 
June, 1894, — Two medical missionary ladies were attacked by a mob in 

Honam. Canton, for one of them rendering assistance to a 

plague patient, and a few days after, on the 20th June, 1894, 

at Shek Lung, in the Tuni^ Kwun district, the American 

Presbyterian Chapel was demolished bv a a mob and one man 

killed. 
May 29th, 189."), — Anti-foreign riots in Szchuen. 
A-Ugust 1st, 189."). — Kucheng (near Foochow) massacre, when Rev. Mr. Stewart 

and ten helpless ladies and children were murdered by a mob. 
May 12th, 189fi. — Serious riot at Kiangyin. — Mission property entirely 

destroyed. 
November 1st, 1897. — Murder of two German Catholic priests at Yenchow by 

a band of 20 men, which led up to the seizure of of Kiauchow 

by the Germans, 
April 9th, 1898. — Riot in Shasi. — Buildings on foreign bund destroyed. 
April 16th, 1898. — American Mission, in suburbs of Chungking, sacked by 

mob. and Chinese medical assistants maltreated and one 

murdered, 
July 8th. 1898. — Protestant and Catholic Missions attacked by rioters at 

Shum-ching-fu. in Sz-chuen, — A French priest captured by 

brigands. 
October loth, 1.S98.— Rioting at Ho Chou. .")0 miles from Chungking. 

American and French Mission places attacked and burned, 
October 2rith, 1898, — Rioting at Shameen, Canton, 
January 8th. 1899. — Serious rioting at Sung-do, near Ningpo, over an 

attempt to work mines. 810,000 worth of mining property 

destroyed. 

It is impo.ssible to give an account of all the small 
nnimportant viots or mobs. At times riots have been 



520 THINGS CHINESE. 

imminent and in a few cases have actually .taken place, 
unattended with loss of life and with but little injury to 
property. 

Boohs recomvii'ndcd . — 'The Anti-forei<;;n Riots in China in 1891.' 
'The Sources of the Anti- Foreign DisturViances in China,' l>y Eev. Gibhert 
Reid, M.A. A full account of the SweecUsli Missionary riot and what was 
done about it is contained on the Hong' Kong Daily Press of Feb. 21st, 1894. 

ROADS. — In the south of China the rivers are the 
natural roads, and in some places, especially in the delta of 
the Canton river, the country is reticulated Avith rivers, 
streams, cross canals, &c., which bring every few miles of 
country within easy reach of water communication. Back 
from the net-work of rivers, paths connect the market-towns 
and villages. In some places these paths are paved with 
granite slabs. It is considered a meritorious act to repair or 
construct roads. 

The country near Swatow is well provided with water 
communication; some of the rivers have numerous boats of 
many descriptions. The public roads in this neighbourhood 
are good, as a rule, though but paths. They are often 
formed of a kind of cement in large slabs about a yard or so 
wide, occasionally square stones are let into this cement, 
while at other times, squares of a slightly different structure, 
from the rest of the road, and looking like conglomerate, are 
so let in, while at other times again the stone is used. The 
roads in this locality are not straight, but ramble through the 
rice fields with a very meandering course. 

In the neighbourhood of Amoy there does not seem to 
be such a traffic on the rivers; and the same is said to hold 
good with regard to the great Yangtsz Kiang in the centre 
of China. 

In the nortli of China, Avhere carts are used, the roads 
are worn below the surface of the surrounding land, and in 
the heavy rains form water-courses for the deluges of rain to 
escape by ; when in this state they have occasionally to be 



SHOOTING. 521 

swum by travellers, and instances of wayfarers being drowned 
in the road are not unknown. 

In some places roads made five liundrcd or even 
thousands of years ago are in existence. 

It would greatly develope trade and facilitate intercom- 
munication wore a Chinese MacAdam to arise, or were the 
Chinese government, instead of buying foreign war material, 
to devote its energy to the construction of these arteries of 
trade. With the curious topsy-turvy way in which the 
Chinese do everything, it is not at all unlikely that the iron 
road will run its spider-like lines through the length and 
breadth of the empire before a system of properly constructed 
roads becomes un fait accompli in this land. 

SHOOriNG.~The Chinese are not sufficiently civilised 
to take delight in killing birds and other game for pleasure ! 
There is a small amount of shooting goes on for food 
purposes. To those who glory in such pursuits there is no 
better book than Lieut. Craddock's ' Sporting Notes in the 
Far East.' He seems to have had a varied experience, and 
gives it for the benefit of others, detailing the game to be 
found at the different ports, the seasons for them, and rules 
of procedure. Snipe, pheasants, woodcock, quail, and many 
other birds, as well as deer, &c., are to be found at different 
places. It would be a good day for the inhabitants of 
certain districts of China if sportsmen would follow the 
example of a few of their number and go tiger shooting. 
This is to be found in the neighbourhood of Amoy and 
Foochow, and in some parts of the Canton province, and 
doubtless in other places in China. The tigers are a regular 
pest, carrying off young children at times even from the doors 
of their houses, as well as dogs and other small animals. In 
two years foreign sportsmen from Amoy ' have killed no 
fewer than twenty-five ' of them. 

SHUTTLECOCK. — The usual reverse occurs in China 
with regard to some of the games that happens with many 
other things in this land of contrarieties. Instead of shuttle- 

2 r 



522 THINGS CHL\ESE. 

cock being more espociully a game for girls, it is most 
especially a game for boys, lads, and men. No girls ever play 
it. It may almost be said to be the national game of China, 
and kite-flying the national pastime. The latter is indulged 
in in autumn; the former in winter, tliough it is played at 
other times as weW. What seems curious about the two is, 
that, though children find an amusement in them, they are 
largely enjoyed and indulged in by those who can scarcely 'be 
described as children, except with the qualifying phrase of 
an older growtli' appended. 

There is no battledore used by the Chinese, but the 
shuttlecock is kept up in the air by the foot, the broad white 
sole of the Chinese shoe actingadmirably for the purpose. Two, 
three, four, or more players get together ; and, if two, stand 
opposite each other, if three or more, they form an irregular 
ring and kick the shuttlecock up into the air in such a manner 
that it may fall near another player, so that there is no violent 
exercise except what is necessary for the kicking. If a foot 
stroke is impossible, when the shuttlecock is falling near 
one, then it is allowable to keep it up by hitting it with the 
hand and thus send it to another player, or to bang it into 
the air in such a way that it may return in a position to be 
easily hit by the foot. There are several foot-strokes — the 
most common being with the inner side of the sole of the right 
shoe. A hit is sometimes made with the outer side of the 
sole of the right shoe. Another hit that must require some 
dexterity (if we may be allowed to use such a word in 
connection with the foot) is given with the right foot — with 
the inner side of the sole of the riglit shoe — from under the 
calf of the left leg. The most usual form of this stroke is as 
follows : — the left leg is doubled round so that the foot is in 
front of the body and about ten or twelve inches from the 
ground: this is done while the shuttlecock is descending : 
and, when it is abnost near enough to hit, a spring is taken 
off the ground with the right foot last, and the shuttlecock 
is immediately hit by the inner side of the sole of the right 
shoe from under the left calf. Another variety of this 



SI Lie. 523 

stroke is to stretch the left leg out in a slo^Ding direction 
dounwards from the body with the foot a few inches above 
the ground, and then a similar stroke is made as described 
above. Another stroke is made with the sole of the right 
foot from behind the body, the foot in delivering it being 
kicked backwards and upwards. With many of the strokes 
delivered from the feet, the shuttlecock is sent up some ten, 
twenty, or thirty feet into the air, though occasionally a 
forward kick is given which directs it towards another player, 
with, perhaps, a slightly rising direction. The play often 
begins by one player tossing the shuttlecock with his hand 
up in the air towards another player opposite him. The 
object of the play is, of course, to keep the shuttlecock up as 
long as possible. The shuttlecock itself is rather different in 
construction from that in use in the West, no cork being 
used; but a number of layers of skin are employed, the two 
outer being snake's skin and the inner ones are said to be 
shark's skin, there being from eight or ten to twenty layers. 
The feathers used are duck's feathers and three in number. 

SILK. — Notwithstanding the disparagement of early 
Chinese inventions by some, no one has yet been found bold 
enough to try and wrest the palm from them for the three 
discoveries of porcelain, lacquer ware, and the manufacture 
of silk. "The cultivation of silk, as of tea, had its origin 
in China ' and • China still stands first amongst the silk- 
producing countries of the earth, and the amount exported 
annually from it to Europe, North America, and Bombay, is 
between 52,000 and 85,000 bales.' 

Silk culture is of very ancient origin ; from references 
in the Shu King to it, it is evident that it was well known 
when that work was written. Silkworms are said to have 
been first reared (B.C. 2G00) by the Empress of Hwang-ti, 
who Avas deified and worshipped, under the name of Yuen-fi, 
as the Goddess of Silk. Offerings are made to her annually, 
in April, by the empress, at a temple in the palace grounds 
at Peking. The great Yu is credited by the Chinese 'as the 
most prominent pi-omuter " uf the cultivation of silk and he 

2 J- 2 



524 THINGS CHINESE. 

is likewise said to *have planted the hill country of Shan-si 
with mulberiies.' The Chinese Government has followed 
the good example of this semi-mythical monarch by giving 
encouragement to the people and endeavouring to incite 
them to engage in this industrial occupation. In fact it has 
bestowed unremitting attention on this important branch of 
industry. 

As the mulberry leaf is the chief food of the silkworm, 
much labour and the greatest care is expended on the cul- 
tivation of the mulberry tree. In the neighbourhood of 
Chinkiang there are two kinds of mulberries — a wild and a 
domestic — the domestic is grafted on the wild. The young 
mulberry trees are transplanted in December and are placed 
at regular distances of five or six feet from one another : 
they are then cut down to one foot six inches in height, and 
two shoots are allowed to grow ; with the systematic pruning 
carried on each year, after five" or six years there are only 
sixteen branches left ; the continual cutting off of all but two 
fresh twigs on each branch produces a knobbed appearance 
of the tree ; and finally, from these knobbed-like fists, about 
fifty to eighty branches are preserved. The trees live more 
than fifty years ; but are not allowed to grow higher than 
five or six feet. The wild mulberry, which grows to a 
height of fifty or sixty feet, is also used, and there is a 
smaller kind as well. 

The silkworm undergoes several changes ; but difierent 
species would appear to diff'er in this respect, for it seems 
that the ' southern silkworm ' has four periods for moulting, 
as a rule, while the * northern silkworm ' generally casts its 
skin three times. 

The greatest care is taken to keep the silkworms from 
noise, which they dislike ; but so far do the silkworm carers 
carry their precautions that they become superstitious, the 
silkworms at certain places being informed by their keepers 
of the arrival of travellers, and, if this is omitted, any luckless 
wight, chancing on a village unannounced, '\\ill receive but 



SILK. 525 

scant courtesy, and be driven away with curses, if nothing 
worse. 

There are ten rules hiid down for breeding silkworms : — 

' The eggs when on paper must be kept cool ; after having been 
hatched they require to be kept warm ; during their period of mouUing 
they must be kept hungry ; in the intervals between their sleeps they 
must be well supplied with food ; they should not be placed too close 
together nor too far apart ; during their sleeps they should be kept 
dark and warm ; after they have cast their skins, cool, and allowed 
plenty of light ; for a little time after moulting they should be sparsely 
fed ; and when they are full grown ought never to be without food ; 
their eggs should be laid close together, but not heaped upon each 
other, Wet, withered, or dusty leaves are not given to them. Rather 
less than two ozs. in weight of young worms will eat i ton and 430 
lbs. weight of leaves 

'While the worms are growing, care is taken to keep them' from 
'bright light ; they are often changed from one hurdle to another that 
they may have roomy and clean places; the utmost attention is paid 
to their condition and feeding, and noting the right time for preparing 
them for spinning cocoons. Three days are required for this, and in 
six it is time to stifle the larvic and reel the silk from the cocoons ; 
this being usually done by other workmen. Those who rear the 
worms enclose the cocoons in ajar buried in the ground and lined with 
mats and leaves, interlaying them with salt, which kills the pupae but 
keeps tne silk supple, strong, and lustrous ; preserved in this manner, 
they can be transported to any distance, or the reeling of the silk can 
be delayed until convenient. Another mode of destroying the cocoons 
is to spread them on trays and expose them by twos to the steam of 
boiling water, putting the upper in the place of the lower one 
according to the degree of heat they are in, taking care that the 
chrysalides are killed and the silk not injured. After exposure to 
steam the silk can be reeled off immediately, but if placed in the jars 
they must be put into warm water to dissolve the glue before the 
floss can be unwound.' 

Silk from Avild worms of different species is also used in 
some of the provinces. 

In Shing-king, in Manchuria, silk is produced from a 
species of silkworm. Bomhiix Pcrnui, or Bo)iibij,v Fantonl 
of Italy, which feeds on the leaves of a species of oak, 
Quercus Mongolia, or Querais rohur. A small quantity is also 
produced from the Bomhijx Ci/)ithla. The yield of this silk 
might be quadrupled. The chrysalides are an article of diet 
with the Chinese. The spinning wheel is similar to that in 
the West. It requires from 1,000 to 5.000 cocoon.s to weave 



526 THINGS (JlllXE^E. 

a piece of silk, and it takes a man two clays to do so. There 
are no large manufactories for its production, but 'each one 
spins, Aveaves, and dyes his own material ' in Manchuria, and 
this is also largely the case throughout China, though not 
entirely. A black silk is produced from the Bomhyx Pernyi 
due to the worm eating the whole of the leaf, stalk, and 
everything. 

In the district about Chefoo there are two kinds of silk 
produced : ' wild silk,' spun from the cocoons of the Bo)nhi/cV 
Pernyi mentioned above, the wild silkworm; and 'yellow 
silk,' spun from the cocoons of the Bomhyx Mori or silkworm 
proper. 

For hatching the eggs, the women in some places keep 
them on their persons for the warmth of their bodies, while 
in other places they put them under the blankets in the 
bed. 

' A newly hatched silkworm is as fine as a hair. Im- 
mediately under its head there are four legs, a little beyond 
on the body there are six more, and again six more near the 
end at the tail ; their whole length is about one-tenth of an 
inch and their colour is black.' The greatest care is taken 
in supplying them with leaves, the men actually washing 
their hands before touching the leaves. They are fed five or 
six times a day at first, but after the third day constantly. 
After one or two days, the worms become brown and, after 
five days more, a yellowish white. The fifth days seem 
memorable ones with the silkworm, for on the fifth day they 
stop feeding and ' undergo their first moult,' and at intervals 
of about five days after each waking they again cast their 
skins, ceasing eating for periods varying from a day and 
night to the * long repose,' the fourth one of, if the weather is 
cold, two or three days, their colour changing at these different 
periods from yellow or a yellowisli-white from before the 
stupors to a slight yellowish tint or a white colour after. After 
these moults tliey will, if in good condition, eat twenty times 
their weight in leaves. After another five days they attain 
maturitv and arc about two inches in Icn^jth. \Yhat lo(;k 



SILh\ :)2T 

like sheaves of straw are used for tlie silkworms to construct 
their cocoons on, each sheaf or bundle being tied round the 
middle and spread out at the top and bottom ; sixty or 
seventy worms are put on each bundle, care being taken not 
to crowd them too much together. They then proceed to 
spin their cocoons amongst the stalks of straw by first at- 
taching themselves \\ith some looser threads, after which 
they spin the compact "' oblong case,' as the dictionary terms 
it, but beautifully rounded, working of course from the out- 
side in. They finish spinning in five days, and, if the silk 
is not spun oii\ they pierce their yellow shrouds in ten 
days. 

' From two catties of good cocoons, nine catties of silk 
are reeled off * * * A quick hand with a double reel- 
ing machine reels about 1^ catties of silk per day, thus 100 
catties of cocoons are about six days Avork.' A certain 
number of cocoons are kept for breeding purposes. The 
female moths die in five days after laying their eggs, which 
they do within a day or so of coming out. 

In tlie Canton province the two principal qualities of 
silk are Tai-tsam and Lun-yut : the eggs of the former are 
hatched once or twice a year ; the latter seven times. 

The author saw, in Swatow, some curious, large, wild 
caterpillars, brightly coloured, which spin a species of silk 
used in making lanterns. 

Wild silkworms in the North of China are fed on 
different kinds of oak and they supply two crops of cocoons 
annually. The natives hatch them, and, after feeding them 
themselves, place them on the branches, when the leaves of 
the trees are fully out, and transfer them to other trees as 
they eat the leaves of one. They spin their cocoons on the 
trees, from whence they are gathered. After the female 
moths have come out, and are ready to lay their eggs, the 
natives tie them by one leg with fine threads to the branches 
of the tree, when they lay their eggs on the leaves. These 
wild silkworms are 'smaller than the domestic ones and of 



528 rillNGS CHINESE. 

a grayish black colour.' The silk filaments of the domestic 
silkworm cocoons are Avound into thread by the aid of a 
primitive reeling machine. 

Tor reeling the silk filament off" the cocoons they are 
placed in hot water to loosen the ends of the silk, the rough 
parts are cleared away, and the clean filament taken with the 
hand and then passed over, or through, the diff'erent parts of 
the reeling machine. As soon as the cocoon gets thin and 
the chrysalis is visible, a new filament is taken in its place. 
The best threads arc made with six or seven cocoons, ranging 
from this number to twenty or more for the coarsest. 'A 
quick hand can reel in one day * * about 20 taels weight 
fine or 30 taels coarse silk.' The wild worm cocoons are 
treated in a different manner. 

The space to which our article must be confined will not 
allow us to go into a detailed statement of the numbers 
of looms and their output, nor are statistics available for 
a full statement ; but, as an example of what is done, we 
may say that in 1880 there were in Chinkiang 1,000 
looms employing 4,000 labourers. In one day, three men 
can turn out about 12 feet to 16 feet of silk; for plain 
goods, two men only are required at each loom; and 
only one man for weaving gauze, there being 200 looms for 
this with 300 men at work, of which 14,000 to 15,000 pieces 
are annually produced for local consumption within the 
province of Kiangsu. Besides this, there are 50 or 60 looms 
'engaged in weaving silk ribbons, each attended to by one 
man; a second is required only in weaving the broader 
kinds. * * * On an average, one man can Aveave about 
40 feet per day. There are about 100 men engaged in this 
branch of the business; and there are about 30 or 40 looms 
for weaving red plain satin.' 

For making sewing silk 'two filaments are twisted 
together into threads.' For crape manufacture there are 
about 200 looms and 800 men employed, 



SlfJ{. 529 

'The greatest silk producing- province in China is Che- 
kiang, and Kiangsu conies second.' while 'Hu-cho\v holds 
the first place among the departments of the whole Empire 
of China for the production of silk.' It may. therefore, be 
interesting to note the production of this one department. 
The production then for 1878 was 2,925,232 catties 
(1,755,139 kilos.), and for 1879, 3,304<,196 catties (1,982,517 
kilos.). There are 4,000 looms, each loom producing about 
100 pieces a year. 

Hang-chiu produces the best kinds of silk piece goods. 

' Filatures produce silk realising Tls. 200 a picul more than 
will that spun from the same cocoons by the old primitive method.' 

'Sericulture is now [1895] the leading industry in China since 
tea has gradually receded tc a subordinate position.' 

'The steps initiated by the Inspector-General [of Imperial 
Maritime Customs] to implant in China the Pasteur system of detecting 
and eradicating disease in silkworms have succeeded in the 
Kwangtung province.' Some time ago it was stated that, in 
Kiangsu and Chehkiang they ' are considering the establishment of silk- 
worm nurseries for the selection of eggs on the Pasteur system,' these 
steps being necessary to cope with the silkworm disease. 

There is a complaint of the defective reeling and 
adulteration of silk from North China, which, unless checked 
is bound to do injury to the silk trade of China. 

There are silk filature establishments in China where 
foreign machinery is employed in reeling and weaving 
the silk. There are three in Macao, one with 54 steam 
looms. There is room for several more as the silk is on the 
spot, there is cheap labour available, and a market. 
Shanghai has 27 silk filatures, Hangchow has one, and 
Soochow three. 

The export of China silk is increasing but not at a 
rapid rate. The following extract from a consular report 
may prove of interest : — 

'China silk is intrinsically the best silk in the world, but from 
ignorance or lack of energy on the part of the producers, it continues 
from year to year to be prepared in the old faulty method, while 
Japan silk, by nature much inferior, is beating it in the market, simply 
by the care and attention bestowed on its preparation, and bv the 

2 II 



530 THINGS CHINESE, 

fostering provision of the Japanese government, who provide the means 
of educating their people in the most approved methods in vogue in 
Europe.' 

Enormous quantities of silk are not only sent abroad 
but even larger quantities are used by the Chinese themselves. 
Silk is a common article of attire and is not confined to the 
gentler sex, who delight to array themselves in briglit and 
soft fabrics in the West; in the gorgeous East, men are 
clothed in as brilliant robes as women. It is utterly 
impossible to say how much silk is used in China, but the 
Chinese consider that their consumption is more than double 
the amount exported to foreign countries. In 1890 the 
amount exported was 158,427 piculs; in the previous year, 
1889, it was 182,939 piculs, doubling these sums would give 
SlGjSSl' piculs and 365.878 piculs respectively ; and no one 
who has seen the quantity of silk used by Chinese would 
doubt that these amounts must be well within the mark of 
their actual consumption of that useful commodity. 

Books recommended. — 'Silk' being a thick hrochvrf, No. 3 of "Special 
Series' of the publications of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. It 
consists of a series of reports from the different Commissioners of Customs 
on the silk culture and manufacture in the districts in the neighbourhood of 
the ports at which they were stationed. We are indebted to this interesting 
and valuable publication for much of the information contained in this 
article. Also see "Silk ; Statistics, 187t) — 88,' a thin pamphlet of the same 
'Special Series' No. 12, 

SLAVERY. — China, in common with most Asiatic 
countries where the liberty of the subject is unknown, has 
the institution of slavery ; but slavery as a general rule is 
milder in the despotic East than where, in direct contra- 
vention of all the free instincts of the West, it has been 
found nestling under the flag of liberty. One would expect 
the contrary to be the rule, but it is not. Where the right of 
the individual was generally respected, as in America, if equal 
justice was not meted out to every man as man, but on 
the contrary the fundamental principles at the foundation of 
society were not only ignored but persistently transgressed 
with respect to one section of the community, it needed 
but little more, all barriers of law and morality as regards 
one branch of the human family being swept away, to 



SLAVERY. 531 

trunsform the otlierwiso mild muster into a cruel one. and a 
few generations, or even less, to develop tyranny which 
knew no law but that of interest and the almighty d(jllar. 

In the East, the individual knows no rights, as an 
individual, as we understand such rights in the West. He 
is but a member of the family; the family is the unit of 
society : the members of the family are but fractions of the 
whole ; the slave owes his existence as a slave to this 
patriarchal rule ; and ejected from one family, generally by 
circumstances over which he has no control, he is engulfed 
in another. 

Slavery then appears almost to be the normal condition 
of part of the inhabitants in a country where the rights of 
the individual, qua individual, are unknown, and where the 
conservation, preservation, and perpetuation of the family are 
the aims of human society, and every means has to be 
employed with these ends in view. To this is due some of 
the buying and selling of human beings as chattels ; for 
should no son be born to a man he often purchases one from 
poor parents and adopts him as his own. Girls are also 
bought to become daughters ; but these can scarcely be 
looked upon as slaves, as they become the children of the 
family into which they are adopted, and are in no more 
bondage than the children born in the family itself. 

A species of debt-slavery exists to some extent 
In China, where a man will give his son to his creditor 
either to adopt or to be his slave or his daughter for 
either a slave or a domestic slave (See below) in full 
settlement of the debt ; and in some provinces (but not in 
Kwang-tung) a wife is even given to be a concubine for the 
same purpose. 

A species of domestic slavery exists to a very large 
extent : there is scarcely a family of good means in Hong- 
kong, Canton, or Macao but what possesses one or often 
several slave-girls. It must, in all fairness to the Chinese, be 

2 K 2 



532 THINGS CHINESE. 

said that this domestic slave-giil system is a very mild form 
of slavery, as we understand that word. The girls are as a 
rule purchased from their parents, who probably sell them 
on account of poverty : they are sold when they are young, 
at any age, some as young as three years and from that up 
to fifteen, but seven, eight, or ten, is a common age. It is 
better to buy them young as they might otherwise run home. 
The prices range from ten or twenty to a hundred dollars, 
the larger amounts being given for good-looking ones, as 
they will bring in a larger number of presents (at their 
marriage) to the family, and thus possibly recoup the owner 
with a two or three-fold amount of money on their purchase 
price, besides, the owner having the use of them as domestic 
servants for ten or more years without wages, food and 
clothing being the only outlay on them. As to lodging, it is 
not worth while taking account of that, for Chinese servants, 
like dogs or cats, can sleep almost anywhere and everywhere. 

These transactions often take place through go-betweens. 
It is somewhat safer, in such cases, to have a broker of 
human flesh, as a charge of kidnapping might be more 
difficult to bring ; for when there is a go-between the rule 
is that a deed of sale is drawn up which is held by the 
purchaser. It sometimes happens, but not often, that the 
parents stipulate that they shall be at liberty to come and 
see the girl ; but this stipulation, if made, is not reduced to 
writing, as it would obviously clash with the interests of 
the purchaser to have the mother coming about interviewing 
the girl and hearing her complaints. 

Should such a verbal agreement as the above have been 
come to, the girl's parents are consulted about her marriage, 
otherwise, for the ten or fifteen years, the girl is virtually and 
actually the property of her master or mistress, and is an 
asset not; realised, under the oixlinary circumstances of life, 
until her marriage, though realisable, and should reverses in 
business reduce the family, it would be in the power of its 
head to sell her just as her parents originally sold her. At 
the same time this is not often done. A clause is often 



SLAVERY. 533 

inserted in the agreement that the girl is not to be sold. into 
prostitution, but, should this clause have been omitted, the 
parents are powerless to prevent it in practice. 

Arrived at marriageable age, the girl is married and 
thus ends her domestic servitude. 

If chance has thrown her into the hands of a fairly 
kind mistress her lot may not be such a dreadful one, but 
instances occur of brutal mistresses half murdering their 
poor little slave girls, even in the British Colony of 
Hongkong. Theoretically, of course, there are no slaves in 
Hongkong, as it is British territory, but practically there are 
thousands of them. All the young maid-servants that follow 
their mistresses' sedan chairs, and that go about with little 
children, belong to this class. No young unmarried free 
women go out into service, though old women do. 

These little slave girls are the most numerous class of 
slaves in China. While mentioning the female sex, it may 
be remarked, in passing, that nearly all prostitutes are slaves, 
the property of their mistresses, the keepers of the houses of 
ill-fame in which they reside, having often been kidnapped, 
or deceived by promises of work being found for them as 
seamtresses, and thus inveigled into the clutches of the old 
harridans who run these establishments. So completely do 
they come under the power of these pests of society, and so 
cowed and frightened are they by the threats and intimi- 
dations of their mistresses, that even in Hongkong, where 
notices were put up in all the registered houses of that 
character that all were free — yet, notwithstanding this, and the 
fact that they are theoretically free to go and see the 
Registrar-General and Protector of Chinese, whose duty it 
is, once knowing their wrongs, to have them righted, they but 
seldom, in proportion to their numbers, avail themselves of 
their rights, and when brought up before him, almost invariably 
say they enter on such a life freely. (Some years ago before 
being allowed to enter as inmates of these houses, all were 
compelled to appear before this official, or his assistant, in 



534- TJIhXGS CHINESE. 

order to have a chance, if they woukl avail themselves of it, 
of stating their unwillingness to be coerced into a life of shame. 
This rule is most unfortunately not in force now.) And though 
every Chinese women that goes abroad, as a common emigrant, 
is questioned and examined as to her willingness to go, yet 
but few, who are being taken against their will, avail them- 
selves of the chance of recovering their freedom. It seems as 
if it would take centuries to educate the Chinese people into 
an idea of what personal freedom is, and what the liberty of 
the subject means, as regards the female sex. 

The cases of little boys sold to be servants is even worse 
than that of the servant girls, as they do not have marriage 
to look forward to, to set them free and end their life of 
servitude. They are slaves for ever, unless they purchase 
their freedom. 

'The Manchu code does not recognise the right of the slave to 
iree himself by his labour, nor punish the master who refuses 
affranchisement. There is, in short, no regulation on the subject (in 
practice the slave frequently purchases his body with his pccidium, 
which is usually, though not legally, held to be the slave's own 
property). Many Chinese allow their slaves to embark in 

trade and ransom themselves with the profits.' 

In ancient times, in China, there were state slaves, but 
banishment now takes the place of the Government slavery 
to a large extent. Priestesses, however, who found a new 
monastery without the sanction of Government, become the 
slaves of Government. 

'The wives, children, and relatives in the first degree of rebels 
are given as slaves to Government officers. "' * * Slaves are 
composed of (i) prisoners of war; (2) those who sell themselves or 
are sold ; (3) the children of slaves.' The first are now rare. We 
have spoken of some already who come under the second heading. 
'Though the penal code forbids the sale of free persons, even by a 
husband, a father, or a grandfather, the number of persons whom 
misery forces to sell themselves or be sold is considerable. The 
punishment varies from 84 to 90 blows, and banishment for 2\ years, 
according to the relation existing between seller and sold. The 
punishment is one degree less when the person sold consents, but 
young children are exempt from all punishment, though they may 
have consented, on account of the obedience due to their older 
relations, and must be returned to their families. * •■- * Though 



SLAVERY. 535 

to keep a free man or lost child as a slave, or to give or take in hire 
a wife or daughter, are severely punishable, the adoption of stolen or 
lost children and the sale of free children and inferior wives are daily 
transactions in China. Inundations and famines are the chief cause. 
Every slave born in a house belongs to his master or his heir ; to 
detain a runaway slave is punishable. Players and brothel-keepers 
recruit their numbers from this class, as they are forbidden by the 
code to purchase free men or women for their professions. '-' 

The inferior wife ranks above a slave ; she is married with fewer 
formalities than the first wife under whose orders she is put. The 
husband can only dismiss her for certain specified reasons ; but in 
practice inferior wives are frequently sold.' 

No property is divisible during the period of mourning, 
but after that is over, if the different sons of the deceased 
wish to separate, they are at liberty to do so, and the eldest 
son then divides the property amongst them equally, whether 
they be sons of the first wife or of inferior wives or of slaves. 
•' We may add that such slaves by the birth of children 
become in China ipso facto inferior wives.' 

Slaves are not allowed to be married to free <jirls. 
In a general way it may be said that slaves convicted of 
crime are punished more severely than if they were free, 
while crimes committed against slaves meet with a lighter 
punishment than if committed against free men. 'Masters 
may beat their slaves or hired servants at pleasure.' 

It is interesting to note that during the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries large numbers of black slaves of both 
sexes from the East Indian Achipelago 'were purchased by 
the great houses of Canton to serve as gate-keepers.' They 
were called 'devil slaves' and it is not improbable that the 
term 'foreign devil,' so freely used by the Chinese for 
foreigners, may have had this origin. In the T'ang dynasty 
even, it is said that they were kept in large numbers by the 
Chinese. Three pages in a Chinese work, 'The Kwangtung 
San Yii,' are taken up with an account of them, and other 
Chinese books notice them as well. 

There is a curious slang phrase in use for slaves; it is 
'two candarins and two lis,' used for example in this way : — 
'they were two candarins and two Us,' ecjuivalent to saying 



536 THINGS CHINESE. 

' they were slaves.' This strange term is said to have arisen 
towards the close of the Ming dynasty, during the troublous 
times, when a Chinese took advantage of his opportunity, and, 
representing himself as a General of the Manchus, levied an 
impost on each inhabitant of the villages of three candarins, 
but, finding that the slaves in these warlike times were mostly 
poor and neglected, he reduced the amount to be paid by 
them to two candarins and two lis, hence the name. 

liool'x recommench'd. — 'Memoir on the condition of Slaves and Hired 
Servants in China,' by M. E. Biot in 'Chinese Repository,' July, 1849. 
Mr. Parker yives the pith of this article by M. Biot in 'Excursus No. 6 — 
SlaA'^es' in his 'Comparative Chinese Family Law.' 

SOCIEriES.— The Chinese are fully aware of the force 
of the adage that 'union is strength/ and have not a few 
different forms of associations, societies, and guilds. One of 
the most common, at all events in the South, is the Money 
Loan Association. Foreigners have considerable difficulty in 
understanding this form of Association, as the arrangements 
connected with it seem complicated, but, when once understood, 
are simple enough. There are several kinds of Money Loan 
Associations, but the most common is the Yi-wiii (pronounced 
Ye-wooee). These associations form a ready and convenient 
means for Chinese to obtain, what is to them, a large sum of 
money when the exigencies of business or their social customs, 
such as those connected with marriage, make it necessary for 
them to procure a larger sum of ready cash for use than can 
easily be obtained in any other way. 

Supposing then, by way of example, that A requires a 
sum of money, say $100, he or she then (for women engage 
more largely in these associations even than men) invites a 
number of friends or acquaintances to join with him or her in 
forming a Money Loan Association, they becoming members 
or shareholders while A is the Head of the Association. 
Should the sum fixed upon as the amount of the periodical 
contribution or share be ^5, then A, having invited twenty 
others to join as members, will get the sum of money he 
requires, for twenty times ^5 is ^100. A enrols the names of 



SOO/ETrES. 537 

all in a book, with amounts and dates of payments, total.", and 
particulars ot" the Association. Sometimes a page of this 
book is devoted to each meeting of the Association and the 
accounts connected therewith. Each member has likewise 
a small book, a pass-book, supplid by A, who fills it up. 
Each member is expected to bring his little book with 
him to each meeting so that the necessary particulars may 
be entered in it, in the event of his obtaining the money. 
The date is written in the centre of the yellow cover of the 
book, or at least the year and month, and the words ' started 
on a lucky day ' below the last, while at the left hand end of 
the cover is put the name of the person to whom the book 
belongs. The Head has a similar book. These books have 
printed forms at the beginning, containing a preamble, giving, 
in rather a vague manner, the origin of these associations, 
followed, for the guidance of those entering into them, by 
the rules, with blanks for the insertion of the amount of the 
contribution or share, and any other matters incident to 
each particular Association. At all events, whatever else 
may be omitted, a list of members appears in the book, a 
name being allotted to each column and placed at the top of 
the column. A number of blank pages follow for the entries 
of dates and contributions, or subscriptions, as they might be 
termed, or payments. In well-kept books, by careful persons 
for instance, the drawing is sometimes put just below the 
name of the person who draws, at times in the following 
manner: 'Second drawdng, interest money 80 cents. Received 
small shares (that is payments from persons who have not 
yet di'awn) twelve shares (besides the drawer's own share) and 
one large share ' (that is a payment from some one who has 
already drawn). 

One of the most common times for the periods of pay- 
ments is by the month, though fortnightly associations are 
not uncommon ; quarterly ones are known, and even annual 
ones are formed by Avealthy men for large sums of money. 

Let it be supposed that the one which A forms is a 
monthly one, A certain day of the month is fixed upon for 

2 s 



538 THINGS CHINESE. 

the f'atui'e meetings and no alteration is allowed subsequently, 
' no matter how unfavourable the weather may be/ as tlie 
Chinese rule puts it. Intercalary months are not counted, 
though sometimes an exception is made to the rule. In 
that case the rule should be expunged from the book. The 
members are apprised by notice being sent to them by the 
Head, requesting tliem to prepare their share and take it 
to the meeting for collection. The money is examined in the 
presence of the members. No set-off of private debts is 
allowed or anything in the nature of a pledge, but the money 
must be actually paid. ■ Should any of the members be kept 
back by any imjiortaut business, he must send one of his 
friends to represent him and pay liis share of the money.' 
Each of the members then pays to A the sum of %o, the 
nominal amount of their monthly contribution, and for the 
first month the actual amount. On the first occasion A keeps 
the money, viz. ^100, as that is the reason he has formed 
the Association, and it is the prerogative of the Head of the 
Association to have the use of the first monthly amount 
of money subscribed, or paid in. Also, by virtue of his 
being the Head, he gets this money without needing to pay 
any interest on it — in short, he gets the full amount of $o 
from each of the twenty members. What follows will 
explain more fully what is meant here. This privilege is 
accorded to him as a set-oft' for the work to be done, and 
trouble to be taken, by him. on behalf of the Association. 
The money is his for any use to which he likes to apply it. 
In fact, it is a loan made to him by all of the twenty mem- 
bers, each contributing his share ('^i)) to it : but having thus 
secured the loan, he commences the very next month to 
repay it, in monthly instalments of |5. He does not, 
however, hand this !^5 separately to a separate creditor each 
month until he has paid the \\ hole twenty : but ho does 
Avhat is tantamount to the same thing, he pays in ^iy each 
month into the funds of the Association — the funds are, of 
course, the aggregate of the monthly payments in by the 
Head and members of the Association, which A, as Head 
is responsible for, and holds in trust for the- members. It 



SOCIETIES. 539 

is equivalent to a personal payment of his debt to each 
member, because each member obtains the loan of all the 
monthly contributions of that month in Avhich he. the 
member, draus the money.. conse([uently this S^ goes each 
month to liquidate in rotation every member for the $5 
originally paid in to A, and which A drew out for his own 
use; for each member, as has already been said, draws out 
in rotation the monthly sum made up of all the payments 
in. In other words, when B draws out the amount of 
money in the second month, in that sum. made up of the 
payments in by the otlicr members, is also the sum of $.") 
paid in by the Head, -which item of ^5 is in repayment of the 
$5 he. B, paid in the first month to A. the Head, which, as 
we have already seen, A drew out for liis o\a n use along Avitli 
all the other items of i^5 paid in by the other members. A 
and B are therefore quits — his, B's. loan, has been refunded 
to him; and the same thing happen^; with G the next 
month, that is the third month, and the same with 1) the 
month after, and so on with all the members, till all are 
repaid; and, in fact, at the end of twenty months A has 
repaid the whole of the |100. 

But wliat makes tlie matter appear complicated is that 
B, C, and D, and all the rest, get loans, and on their part 
repay — in reality each one, except the Head, lend-s to every- 
one else, and each one, including the Head, borrows from 
everyone else, and as soon as eacii one borrows, each one, 
except the last then commences to repay everyone else. This 
seems confusion worse confounded, and the maze appears too 
intricate to the European obser\er; as he sees in his mind's 
eye each member transformed, after the first month, one by 
one, from a lender into a receiver, a borrower, and a payer- 
back. It is, however, simple cnougli ; and the clue to the 
maze is to be found infixing on one member at a time, as we 
have done with the Head, and following this one meniber 
through all the intricacies until, wath the close of the Associa- 
tion, his accounts are all settled, at the same time resolutely 
closing our eyes to the action of the Head and other members, 

2 s 2 



540 THINGS CHINESE. 

except inasmuch as they affect the actions and money of the 
one member we are following. 

Let us then take B. How docs he get his loan ? He is 
not the Head : lie cannot draw the money as the Head 
would at the very start without paying any interest for it, 
but, by virtue of being a member, he is entitled to the 
loan. All the members are, however, equally entitled. What 
shall decide the respective times at which they are permitted 
to draw ? Tlie rule is, after the Head has had his, that the 
drawings of loans every month shall be by tender, and the 
highest bidder shall get it. This seems a very fair rule, as 
the man or woman most in want of money is likely to offer 
the most for it. These tenders are then put in at every 
meeting by the members desirous of drawing the money, 
except at the first and last meetings. At the first, as has 
already been seen, the Head has it by right, at the last it 
devolves, as a matter of course, to the residuary member, as 
all the rest have drawn. The tenders for the loan are written 
on any kind of paper. If sent by another's hand they are 
enclosed in an envelope and the name should be written on 
the paper as well as the price tendered. If the member is 
present in person he may write it at the time of handing it 
in, but in that case he need only write the amount on it 
Avithout his name, and no envelope is required. The Head 
of the Association opens the tenders, which are placed on the 
table before him, in the presence of the members, who see 
them. The highest tender is taken, and should two be equal 
in amount the first opened is considered as the successful 
one. Ic is not compulsory on all the members to tender 
each time, but the tendency is for most to do so, as, if tliere 
is a demand for the money, one who is in actual want of it, 
seeing so many present, will, though he may not knoAV what 
the others have offered, make a big bid in order to overtop 
theirs, and thus, though the others may not have cared 
for the money, yet. by their presence and tendering, 
they have raised the interest v.'hich they will each obtain 
for that loan. In short, a monthly loan is given by the 
Association in rotation to each of its members, and this 



SOCII'JTII'JS. oil 

rotation is conditionGcl by the highest bid oH'orcd on each 
occasion, as explained above. In the second month we will 
suppose then that B writes on a piece of paper ' Offers 
interest, oO cents' and hands this in : we will further suppose 
that this is the highest amount ottered, consequently B 
obtains the loan. Sometimes three days of grace are allowed 
for payment in of the money after the tenders have been 
opened, but it often happens that the contributions have to 
be paid in immediately after the tendering is over. In this 
case then B pays nothing in, as he is obtaining a loan : the 
Head pays his ^5, as he docs every month after; but all 
the other niembcrs pay, not !§;5, the nominal amount of 
their contributions, but ^4'. 50, that is to say, they each 
deduct the fifty cents offered as interest. ( Looking at it in 
one way, they thus get their interest in advance, as it were, 
and, should the association come to grief, their loss, if they 
do not recover their money, is not quite so great, though, as 
will be seen from what is said further on, it would be better 
to say they each only lend .f 1.50, the borrower having to 
pay $5 for each of these sums of $1.50, thus repaying 
principal and interest.) These amounts are handed to 
the Head, who, after collecting them, P'^iys them 
over to B along with his, the Head's own $5, making 
a total of S^l<.50 x 19 + p --$90.50. This then is the loan 
that B draws. On each occasion after this B pays the full 
amount of the contribution, $5. It will thus be seen that by 
doing so he pays the interest on his loan ; for every subse- 
(juent drawing by a member contains, of course, amongst 
the different items of which it is made up, one of $5 from B ; 
and as the subsequent drawer, however, only paid into the 
Association $4.50 on the occasion that B drew, he, the 
subsequent drawer, consequently has got paid back to him $5 
for the $koO, i.e., the 50 cents for interest that B offered, 
and which was accepted, as his, B's, tender was the highest 
on that occasion. It will be remembered though that B 
originally paid $5 to A on the first draA\ing when A took 
the drawing by right of being the Head. As we have already said 
A pays $5 every time after the first, consequently B has got hiu 



542 THINGS CHINESE. 

%b back from A, the exact sum he, as one of the members, 
had loaned to him through the Association, for, as we have 
already said, A, being the Head, pays no interest, so it will 
be seen A's and B's accounts are settled as regards each 
other. B, again, by paying in $5 every month, subsequent 
to the one in Avhich he got the loan, virtually pays the other 
members back the amounts due to them with interest as 
above, viz., nineteen monthly instalments of $5 ; counting in 
that he has already paid $.5 to A, as we have just pointed 
out, his whole payments therefore are ^5 x 19 + |5 = $100, 
that is for the :§i90,50, and its use, he has paid ijilOO, i.e.. 
$9.50 of interest. 

With regard to C. Let us suppose that C offers 25 
cents interest, and his tender, being the highest in the 3rd 
month, is necessarily accepted. A will receive A's %o. He 
receives from B !&5, as B commences this month (see above) 
to pay $5 ; for after each loan obtained each member pays 
the full amount of the subscription. From the others, 
eighteen in number, C receives !tp4.75 x 18 =$85.50; add to 
this the |10 above and it makes $95.50, the whole amount 
which the Head of the Association hands to him. His 
payments are as follows : — 

1st month to A ---..-. $5.00 

2nd month to B $4.50 

3rd month nothing 

4th to 21st month, 18 months @ $5 = $90.00 

Total $99.50 



He thus pays $99.50 for the use of $95.50, I.e., $4 of 
interest. 

Let us no"\v" take T"s case, the twentieth man : to use an 
Irishism he repays his loan before obtaining it, or, in other 
words, he pays in a varying sum each montli, after the first 
month dependent, as has already been shewn in the cases of 
B and C, upon the amount of interest oft'ered. Of course. 
the higher the interest has been the better for T, as well as 



SOCIETIES. 543 

for all the other members in a varying degree. Suppose 
the interest declueted aver;iged 25 cents a month, T's 
payments would then be i|5 to A the first month, and 
nineteen payments of ^4 .7o— 90.25, add to this the $5 to 
A=|95.25. He pays that amount and gets ^100 for it. In 
short the other members have been using his money and 
he gets paid interest, St'-'^^j ^ov its use. He does not need 
to tender for the igilOO, but gets it, as no one else is entitled 
to it but him, all having previously drawn. The Association 
ends with him, for it only runs as long as there are members, 
as soon as these have each had tlieir turn at a loan the 
Association is finislicd. The Society has thus a twofohl 
character: that of a borrowing club; and that of a lending 
club: for there is a regular succession of borrowers, beonnninfr 
Avith A, and a body of lenders, decreasing in number with each 
meeting. It will thus be seen that this Mutual Loan Benefit 
Association is most ingeniously arranged, and that it affords 
exceptional facilities for obtaining a loan on easy terms, 
with the chances to the members of good interest and easy 
payments, in small sums distributed over a long period. It 
needs only to be added that, should a member delay his 
payment, the Head of the Association may pay it for liim, if 
he likes, or it may stand over if the members are friendly 
with the defaulting member; should any member die before 
drawing his loan, his wife or children, or, in default of them, 
nearest of kin, may continue to go on with the Association 
in the place of tlie deceased, on condition that the Head of 
the Association approves of them doing so ; but if the Head 
is unwilling, then the heirs must wait till the winding up of 
the whole affair, when, on the accounts being made up, it 
will be seen how many payments the dead man had made, 
and a sum equivalent to an equal number of $5 payments 
will be made to them : should he already have obtained his 
drawing befoie his death, his heirs are required to make the 
usual monthly p;iyments of !}j;5 to repay the Association; if 
they are not able to do so. it is accepted as a misfortune, the 
Head is not considered liable, as a Head of the Association, 
and the membei's only suffer. Should it be written on the 



544. THJNGS CHINESE. 

top margin of the book that ' should any member abscond 
the principal is to be refunded but not the interest, any 
accidents, &c., are to be taken as the will of God/ then the 
Head of the Association has to conform to this rule, but 
otherwise a principle of practical equity, much practised by 
the Chinese, Avhen circumstances over which they have no 
control occur, is brought into play, and the Head of tlie 
Association makes good one-half of what the absconding 
member ought to have paid ; or, rather, he makes good half 
of the principal, the other half being a loss to the members, 
and this holds good in botli the Yi-wm, now written aboutj 
and the Tei-p'o-wiii (pronounced Tay p'o wooee) to be men- 
tioned later on. Whether the above words are written or 
not the Head is not responsible for the subscriptions of a 
dead member 

With regard to the subscriptions to the Association, it 
may be remarked that, in practice, it seems often to be consi- 
dered sufficient if the money is paid into the hands of the Head 
of the Association at any place somewhere near the time that it 
should be paid, i.e., it is not necessary that the money should 
be paid absolutely punctually. 

The members have no redress when the Head of the 
Association absconds while the Association is in progress. 
Those who have had their drawing are content, of course, to 
let the matter rest, as they have liad all their benefit and 
cannot be called upon by the other members who have not 
had the loan to continue their payments, as the contract is 
not between member and member, but it is a contract 
between each separate member of the Association and the 
Head. On the latter absconding the Association is broken 
up, This can be seen by the fact that in the poorer 
Associations — where the contributions are confined to a few 
dollars, and where the members do not meet for dinners — ■ 
the members may not even see each other or know anything 
at all about each other. (This view of the matter has been 
held in the Hongkong Courts in an appeal case. See report 
of Judgment by the Full Court in 'The Hongkong Daily Press' 



SOCIETIES. 545 

of the 19th March 1892). The Head in somcof such Associations 
sometimes goes round to each of the members at their own 
houses, &c., with an earthenware money-box and the members 
drop their tenders into it. After the collection of tenders is 
thus made, the crock is broken and the tenders taken out. 

In the more important associations, when the amount of 
the subscription is $100 or so, the Head of tlie Association, 
having asked his friends to join and got their consent, 
follows it up in the course of a few days with invitation cards 
to a dinner or wine-party at some eating-house, and they are 
asked to bring their subscriptions with them. All who 
respond to the invitations become members ; from five to ten 
days after, their names are all entered by the Head into the 
books, with rules, amount of subcription, &c., and one is 
given to each member. The expenses of the first dinner are 
paid by the Head ; and the same individual, on behalf of the 
members, provides a dinner again, issuing invitation cards 
the previous day, as before, but on each occasion subsequent 
to the first it is the member who obtains the loan who pays 
the expenses of the dinner ; the money (a certain sum at the 
very first being fixed for its cost) for it being deducted out 
of his loan ; the dinner, however, is ordered by the previous 
drawer. One who does not attend the dinner, or dinners, 
is not exempted thereby from his share of the expenses, and 
one who wishes to enjoy the feast must come to it, as no 
portion will be sent to the absentee. When the dinners are 
given in connection with these Associations, the business is 
attended to first, and after that the members have their 
feasting : business first and pleasure afterwards. This 
feasting, however, does not take place in the smaller Associa- 
tions where the shares are only a few dollars each. A 
member in an Association is not confined to one share, but 
may have two or more if he chooses. 

There is another kind of these associations called the 
Tei-p'o-wiii, ' Spread on the Ground Association,' so called 
because it is said the original starter was too poor to have 

2 T 



546 THINGS CHINESE. 

any place to receive his friends, and had to spread a mat on 
the ground to collect the amounts subscribed. The Tei-p'b 
are slightly different from the Yi-wiii. though in many of the 
details they are the same, the differences being so slight that 
the same book is used. The chief point of difference is that 
the Head of the Association, as Head of the Association, is 
out of it altogether, that is to say, he or she does not obtain 
a loan. At the same time in the Tei-po-wiu the Head may be 
a member of the Association or not as he or she chooses. If the 
latter he or she then has no share in the matter at all. He or she 
is in fact a paid servant of the members, that is to say, he or she 
does all the work that the ordinary Head does and gets a half of 
the value of a share paid to him or her by the successful drawer. 
Under these circumstances the Head does not get the first 
drawing as in the Yi-wiii, but the first drawing is balloted 
for as well as the others. All the other functions and duties 
he or she performs are the same as the Head of the Yi-wui does, 
and he or she is responsible for the money. The position occu- 
pied by the Head is more analogous to that of a paid servant, 
though no salary is his or her reward ; but he or she gets 
a commission, as it were, to recoup him or her for his or 
her trouble, the amount of the commission being fixed at 
one-half of the subscription, i.e., if the periodical subscription 
paid were %o, the Head would get |2 50 ; and this is paid to 
him or her by the person who obtains the drawing on each 
occasion. In the Tei-p'o-wiii no dinners or wine parties 
are given. The Head goes round personally and informs the 
members of the meetings, which are held in his or her house. 
Some bring written tenders, but the majority, being women 
and unable to write, bring sticks of bamboo of different 
lengths with them, to represent the amounts they are willing 
to offer as interest. These sticks of bamboo are unburnt 
ends of incense-sticks and the women break them into the 
right lengths, perliaps in a corner of the room where no one 
can see them, the owner telling the Head what each bamboo 
stick stands for : the longer ones, say one dollar, the shorter 
ones may be fifty cents, and the still shorter ones, perhaps 
ten cents. After all are laid down, and before opening. 



."SOCIETIES. oil 

sometimes the tenderer may say, ' I add verbally so many 
cents to my tender.' 

The claims of those jVIoncy Loan Associations have been 
ruled out of Court in Hongkong, should the numbers of those 
forming them exceed twenty, as by the laws of the Colony 
every company, if twenty in number, must be registered as a 
public company, but, if less in number, they heve been tried 
upon their merits. In the case of an Association, not completed, 
Sir James Russell ruled that the Head of the Association 
could be sued for the money had. As in the Tei-p'o the 
Trustee (or Head) gets a commission on each drawing, but in 
the Yi-wiii he gets the first drawing, it was held by one of the 
Hongkong Judges (the Hon. F. Snowden) that in the latter 
case the Trustee is responsible for the future payments, but 
not in the Tci-po-wiif, as in that the Head only puts himself 
or herself, to the trouble cf collecting and does not make 
himself, or herself, responsible for the members paying it, 
merely drawing a commission for the trouble of collecting. 

It seems strange to find what one thought was an 
entirely Chinese institution in use amongst factory girls in 
England, as the following extract will show. Has someone 
from China introduced it into the West, or can it be one of 
those old-world customs handed down through the ages ? 

'While we stand watching, I am struck by a knot of girls who 
are in hot dispute or discussion over some point. "Oh, it's only 
"Liz"' says my guide, "holding a club. Her mother's in a bit of 
trouble about the rent, and so she's getting the money this way." 
* o o 'Yhe girls all do it, and photograph clubs, clothing clubs, 
money clubs, abound on every side. This special one held by " Liz" 
happens to be a guinea club. * * "Liz" and twenty other girls 

have joined together for twenty-one weeks, each girl subscribing one 
shilling per week. Their names are written on papers, and then 
drawn in rotation. The girl who draws out No. i is entitled to her 
guinea at once, and in this case, as "Liz," for holding the club, is 
entitled to be No. i, she has her money wherewith to pay oft' the rent. 
No. 2 gels her guinea in two weeks, No. 3 in three weeks, and so 
on till No. 21 gets hers, after the twenty-one weeks. All pay their 
shilling per week, whether they receive their guinea first or later, 
so that the only advantage of the club is that a girl may draw an 
earjv number, and have a sum of mcnev at once. 

2 T 2 



548 Things giUnese. 

It will be noticed that this is a simpler form of the 
money loan association than that found in China, as no 
interest is paid and the complicated system of repayments 
does not come into play. 

SOCIETIES, SECRET.— k book dealing with 'Things 
Chinese ' would scarcely be complete without some reference 
to secret societies, as these combinations are so common, 
not only in their own native land, but they often obtain a 
more powerful position and even exert at times a greater 
influence when transplanted to foreign soil. 

There seems to be a world-wide similarity between secret 
societies in many respects. In their fundamental principles 
there is a wonderful likeness, as well as in many points of 
practice, ceremonial, and ritual. When we come, however, 
to examine into them, it seems, as a general rule, to be a 
family likeness, perhaps the result of heredity, and not a 
servile imitation of one another during recent times. 

Especially is this true of some of the Chinese secret 
societies. Of them it may be said that they are founded 
upon a spirit of fraternity, devotion, filial piety, and religion. 
At least this is the case with the most famous, the Sam Hop 
Will, or Triad Society, though it has shown itself in the 
terrible rebellion that was carried on for many years under 
its banners in opposite aspects to these. In its ' Words of 
Exhortation ' we find it written ' If people insult you, 
injure you, revile you, abuse you, — how ought you to take 
it ? You ought to bear it, suiFer it, endure it, and for- 
give it.' How then, it may be asked, is revolt and rebellion 
against the Government compatible with such principles ? 
They are quite in harmony according to the Chinese idea; 
for it is the duty of the good to upset the government of the 
bad. In such a case it is not rebellion, but the raising of the 
standard of righteousness against tyranny and oppression. 
We must gi^'e the leaders of the great T'ai-p'ing rebellion 
credit for motives of this character at their inception of the 
rebellion, though some of them mav have had their heads 



SOCIETIES, SECRET. 549 

turned eventually by lust of power, while the rag-tag and 
bobtail which followed in their train had no higher motives 
than plunder and loot. 

The origin of the Hung league, one of the names of the 
Triad Brotherhood, is shrouded in the mists of uncertainty. 
They claim, like the Freemasons, a high antiquity, but it is 
impossible, as far as researches have been carried at present, 
to say with any certainty whence they sprang. There would 
appear to be some slight indications or possibilities of the 
existence of this society in some form or another in previous 
times, but it Avas only during the rule of China by the Tartars 
that it appeared as a regular political body. The two 
provinces of Canton and Fuhkien, which most energetically 
resisted the Tartar sway, Avere the cradles of the Triad Society. 
In course of time the Triads awoke the displeasure of the 
Government, Unfortunately the followers of the Society 
* degenerated into a band of rebels and robbers, that seemed 
to have lost every notion of the proper spirit of its 
association.' But a change came over them, for one of 
their members, Hung Sau-ts'iin, obtained some knowledge 
of Christianity, which he engrafted on the old stock ; 
and it is a matter of recent history, how, the standard 
of rebellion raised, the forces of the insurgents were 
increased by ever swelling bands of recruits, while many 
were forced to join their ranks in the hopes of escaping 
immediate death ; all hopes of desertion were denied them 
in some cases by the words T'lii P'ing being branded on 
their cheeks, a positive proof, if found by the Imperialists, 
that they Avero rebels. Their leader took the title of ' King 
of the Heavenly Kingdom of Universal Peace,' and had 
associated with him several co-kings. Under their leader- 
ship many of the finest provinces were overrun : death and 
destruction dealt out to the inhabitants ; the idol temples 
demolished, and the idols mutilated ; the fair land turned into 
a desert ; Nanking, the ancient capital of China, captured, and 
the new dynasty started its reign within the old walls of the 
' Southern Capital,' for such is the meaning of the name. In 



550 THINGS CHINESE. 

fact it looked much as if the Manchu Tartars were doomed, 
and doubtless they might have been, had not foreign aid 
come in the person of General Gordon, whose 'Ever 
Victorious Army,' as it was called, so effectually assisted the 
Imperial forces that they gained the day, and, after many 
a hard fought battle, the rebellion was quelled and the then 
effete Manchu dynasty bolstered up on the throne. At the 
same time there was so much of corruption and evil in the 
ranks of the rebels that it is questionable, had they succeeded, 
whether their rule would have been any better, or even as 
good, as that of those they endeavoured to overthrow ; for, 
with the great mass of their followers, murder, rapine, and 
plunder were the aims, while the leader developed into a 
visionary of a curious type ; he was possessed by a most 
extraordinary craze, giving out that he was the younger 
brother of Jesus Christ, and a number of other blasphemies. 
These were published in books and pamphlets issued from 
the press. The author possesses a collection of these books 
and most wonderful productions they are. The diplomas, or 
certificates, are curious documents ; they are written on white 
linen. There is much paraphernalia connected with the 
Lodges, such as numerous flags, banners, state umbrellas, 
warrants, working tools, &c. 

Each Lodge in the society — how many there are we 
are unable to say — is governed by a President, two Vice 
Presidents, one Master, two Introducers, one Fiscal, who 
is styled 'The Red Stick' from the red staff with which he 
punishes offenders, thirteen Councillors, amongst whom are a 
Treasurer, a Receiver, and an Acting Treasurer; there are 
also Agents and muior officials who wear flowers in their 
hair. Some of the brethren, who are styled Horse-leaders, 
are appointed to act as recruiters of new members. Besides 
these, four brelhrcn summon the others to the meetings. 
The officials arc appointed by the vote of the whole Lodge. 
After one year, a brother can be promoted to be an Introducer ; 
after two, to be a Vanguard : after three, to be a Master, if a 
vacancy occurs. The Meetings are generally held on the 



25th day of the Chinese month. (Ten days ' notice has to 
be given, by summons, of each meeting of Lodge). The 
author has in his possession one of the summons used in 
Hongkong. It consists of a slip of bamboo on Avhich is 
written the name of the ]jodge and the other particulars 
requisite. Contributions, varying in amount, are made at 
the usual Chinese festivals, &c. Recruits for the society are 
got by persuasion, but, failing that, notices are put into the 
houses of those they wish to have join them instructing them 
to go to a certain spot at a given time, and threats are held out 
that, if the authorities are informed, destruction will over- 
take them and their relations and property. Arrived at the 
rendez-vons they are conducted to the Lodge ; at other times 
they are assaulted and decoyed on till, overpowered by num- 
bers, they are put into a sack and carried there. The can- 
didates for initiation present themselves bare-footed with dis- 
heveled hair and with the lappets of their coats hanging open. 
Five incense sticks are taken in their hands and four quatrains 
repeated by them, after which they swear to their certificates 
of birth, while the Introducer, acting as Herald, gives 
their names so that all the brethren may hear them. Having 
arrived at the gate an incense stick is taken in both hands 
and the candidates salute the two Generals. On entering the 
first gate of the camp their names, surnames, ages, and times 
of birth are all carefully entered in a book by the Vanguard. 
An arch of steel is then formed — one half of the swords being 
of copper, however — and the candidates are led under it, 
sometimes a red cloth does duty for the arch of steel. The 
candidates, holding three red stones in their hands, have to 
pay, after passing, twenty-one cash as first entry money, and 
find themselves before the Hung gate, which is guarded by 
two Generals ; here they kneel thrice. Their names are 
demanded from the Vanguard, who gives them ; the Generals 
then go in to obtain the Master's permission for them to 
enter, after which they are allowed to pass ' and are brought 
to the Hall of Fidelity and Loyalty,' where two more Generals 
are on guard who also ask their names, and the candidates 
kneel four times. There, at last, they are instructed, in the 



552 THINGS CHINESE. 

objects of the society ; and "'are exhorted to be faithful and 
loyal to the league to which they are about to be affiliated.' 
The grievances 'against the Tartar dominion are enumerated 
and promises' made to ' those who shall accomplish their 
duties faithfully ; whilst fearful threats are pronounced against 
those who should dare to refuse to enter the league.' ' The 
last enclosure before the Lodge ' is the Heaven and Earth 
circle, which is again guarded by two Generals. ' After 
having passed though, and gone across the surrounding moat 
or ditch, they reach the East Gate of the City of Willows, 
guarded by Han-pliang.' The candidates here kneel twice. 
They are led to the Council Room called ' The Lodge of 
Universal Peace ' where the whole of the council is assembled. 
' Two Generals keep guard at the door of this room.' The 
Vanguard speaks to them and requests permission for 
Thien-yu-hmig (the candidates are supposed to personate him) 
to enter, which the Master grants. The Vanguard then 
enters the Council Room, after which a number of questions 
are asked which he answers, repeating a quatrain or some 
verses after each statement as a proof. There are 333 
questions and they refer to the objects .of the society, its 
different working tools, banners, parts of the Lodge, historical 
and legendary history, &c. 

After the examination is through, the Master is satisfied 
and those who wish to proceed with their Initiation have 
further ceremonies to go through, while those who refuse 
to join the brotherhood are taken to the West Gate and 
have their heads cut off. The next thing, for those 
who are proceeding with the ceremony, is the cutting 
off of the queue, the queue being a sign of subjection to 
the Manchu rule, but this cannot always be carried out, 
as it would be a sign of rebellion to be seen without one, 
though it is sometimes done and a false queue braided on 
ajjain. l^ext to each candidate stands a member who 
answers what it is necessary to say for him. The candidates 
are shaved and their hair done up as under the Ming 
dynasty, and they would appear to be clothed in sackcloth 



SOCIETfKS, SECRET. orYS 

and mpurning. The next ceremony is that of washing 
the faces of the candidates, emblematical of cleansing 
traitorous hearts, after which the outer garments, are 
taken off, as they are cut after the Manchu style. ...This 
ceremony of ' undressing ' having been gone through, they 
are dressed in long white robes and a red handkerchief 
wrapped round tlie head, and later on a pxvir of straw 
mourning shoes, in place of the ordinary shoes, is put 
on ; during the course of all these ceremonies numerous 
quatrains are recited bearing on them. These preliminaries 
being ended, the candidates are led before the altar, on 
which is a censer of M'hite porcelain. The whole of the 
brethren present take nine blades of grass in their hands 
to pledge fidelity, in commemoratiou of the manner in which 
the original founders did so ; two quatrains are repeated, the 
oath, written on large sheets of yellow paper, is next laid oil. 
the censer, and incense-sticks taken in the hands of all 
present, verses again being recited ; the incense is oft'ered and 
a blade of grass is put by each member into the ashes -of the 
censer and a verse repeated ; a second and third are placed 
in, in the same way. After this three sticks of fine incense 
are struck into the censer, one by one, a verse being repeated 
with each ; • two candles of dry wood are now lighted " and 
another quatrain recited, followed by the lighting of a red 
candle in the same manner. All this being through, a silver 
wine-jug and three jade-stone wine-cups are brought in, and 
the brethren worship Heaven and Earth "by pledging three 
cups of wine ' with the usual accompaniment of verses. 
After the wine has been offered the Seven Starred Lamp is' 
lit, followed by the lighting of the ''Lamp of the Gemmeous 
Ruler' and the Hung Light, all accompanied by verses. All 
the lamps being thus lit and the incense giving forth its 
fragrant odours, a solemn prayer, read slowly and reverentially, 
is offered to the gods — Buddhist, Taouist, as well as to the 
deified spirits of nature and of heroes. After rising from this 
prayer, eight salutations on bended knee are made to Heaven, 
Earth, the Sun, the Moon, ' the Five Founders, Wan-yun-lung, 
the Brethren, and the renowned amongst their companions/ 

2 u 



554 THINGS CHINESE. 

a verse again being recited. One of the members then takes 
the oathj which has baen lying on the censer all this time, 
and reads it to the candidates Svho remain kneelinfj durinjj 
the reading.' It is in thivty-six articles and enjoins the 
practice of equity and justice amongst the members; the 
shielding of the brethren in times of trouble ; the chastity 
of a brother's wife or concubine and of his child are to be 
strictly respected ; and, besides, the members are told, ' you 
must consider the father of a brother as your own father, 
his motlier as your mother, his sister as your sister, and his 
M'ife as your sister-in-law.* 

After reading the oath, the brethren rise from their 
knees and proceed to the ceremony of confirming it by 
shedding blood, first making and drinking tea to cleanse the 
mouth, with the usual recitations. A large bowl is next filled 
with wine and another quatrain repeated. The brethren 
prick themselves in the middle finger and thus mingle some 
of their own blood with the wine, all drinking of it, several 
quatrains bearing on the subject being recited at the time. 
Sometimes a cock's blood is used Instead. 'The Drinking of 
the Bloody Wine ' being over, a white cock's head is chopped 
off", to the usual accompaniment, followed by an execration, 
solemnly pronounced, beginning: — 'The white cock is the 
token, and we have shed its blood and taken an oath. The 
unfaithful and disloyal shall perish like this cock.' 

'The new members are now led witliout the West Gate 
where a furnace is bitrning ; ' there the oath is burned, thus 
being sent into the spirit world and coming to the knowledge 
of the gods, who will punish any perjurers. 

The President then presents the new members wdth 
their certificates, on the back of which their names are 
written in a secret manner. ' The book, containing the oath, 
laws, regulations, secret signs, &c., is also given to them,' 
and sometimes a pair of daggers. Besides keeping their 
certificates on their persons they also keep three of the Tui- 
p'ing coins, as signs of recognition: for all of these tilings 
they pay fees, 



SOCIETIES, SKGllET. ooo 

They are next led round the building, to have the flags 
and working tools shewn to them, to the accompaniment of 
quatrains. 

The banners arc then consecrated, three cups of wine 
being poured on tlie ground at the same time, as a libation 
to the gods, a prayer is offered and another quatrain recited. 
After this prayer, the spear-heads are dipped in the blood 
of a white horse and a black ox, which arc slaughtered 
as offerings to the solar and telluric principles respectively ; 
they are then cooked and a supper eaten, during, and after, 
which theatricals take place. As dawn approaches the 
members reclotlic themselves in their present, every-day 
attire and return home. 

There is a code of laws and statutes, the articles of law 
being seventy-two in number, and the regulations twenty-one; 
besides these there arc ten prohibitory By-laws relating to 
i\[eetings of Lodge. All these laws and regulations inculcate 
brotherly kindness, assisting of brethren in time of need, 
shielding them from the authorities, and abstaining from 
giving evidence against them in the Courts of Law ; the trial 
of all cases in which brethren alone are concerned is to 
be held before the Lodge and not to be brought before the 
magistrates ; letters are to be carried from foreign countries 
for the brethern, and any brother found purloining money 
intrusted to him by a brother is severely punished. The 
infraction of each of the regulations is followed by imprecations 
or threatened punishments, among which may be noted those 
uf having the head cut off", an ear chopped off", &c. Wo 
cannot, however, give even a short resume of all the offences 
provided for ; but amongst these laws, as can well be 
imagined, the divulgence of the secrets in any -way is a most 
serious offence. 

The brethren have besides a perfect system of secret 
signs adapted for all times and seasons and conditions. We 
will ju5t instance a few of them ; — ' If people ask you on the 
road *" Whence come you ? " Answer " I come from the East." 
If they ask yuu '* Whither arc you going ? " Answer **' I ^\ant 

2 u 2 



S5Q THINGS CIliNESL\ 

to go to tlic place where I can join the myriads of brethren." ' 
In entering the iiouse of a brother, one is directed to stop for 
a moment and enter with the left foot first. In sitting down 
tbo points of the grass shoes are turned towards each other, 
while the heels are separate : tliis is a sign that one is a 
brother. The queue so done up as to have the end hanging 
down behind tlie left ear denotes business. Another sign in 
nse is the tucking up the right leg of the trousers while the 
left leg is allowed to hang dcwn. The brethren have dilFerent 
signs, pass-words, and quatrains for iise if attacked by robbers 
and pirates who may chance to be Triad men ; and though 
they are not allowed to divulge the secrets to outsiders yet 
they are permitted to teach their sisters and wives certain 
verses for their protection under similar circumstances. All 
contingencies appear to be provided for, amongst others,, 
directions are given how to put up a secret sign over one's 
door in case of a revolt. The author knows that this is not 
a part of a mere system, but is of practical use, because 
a house he once lived in, in a Chinese city, was thus 
protected, when it was feared tJiat the T-iii-p"'ing rebels 
would attack the place. Numerous signs and counter-signs, 
forms of recognition, and wishes expressed secretly, are 
all revealed by the manipulation of tea-pots, tea-cups, wine- 
cups tobacco and ojjium pipes, chopsticks, white fans, 
and betel nuts, by placing them in different positions, 
holding them in different ways, and presenting them to 
one another. 

The Triad Society has brought itself prominently into 
notice in the English and iXitch colonial possessions, where 
its members have exerted a great influence, and almost 
absolute power at times, over their fellow-countrymen. Their 
membership in some places is enormous : in the Straits 
Settlements it would appear, if we are to judge by the 
figures, that at one time, at all events, their number was 
equal to that of the Chinese population; for in 1887 the 
census return:i tlic Chinese population as less tlran the Triad 
members, which were 15G lit). 



SOCIETIES, SECRET. 557 

The (Jliee Hin. a Hokkicn. or Fukien, society, had a 
mouibcrship in the year 1889, in Singapore, of 18,073 
members with 478 office bearers; the total membership'of the 
10 societies registered in 1889 was 68,3 1(>, an increase of 
,).0Q() on the previous year, making a total since 1877 of 
68,31(j, while tliere was an approximate increase of 9.000 in 
Penang, the total number of 113,300 being the approximate 
membership. One society, named the Ghi Hing, having an 
approximate membership of 70,000. 

A new Societies Ordinance came into force in 1890 in 
the Straits Settlements. Its chief object was to abolish the 
Triad Society, as well as other Dangerous Societies, 'some of 
which have existed in Singapore since 1821 and in Penang 
for a much longer period ; ' one or two of the Penang societies 
are very wealthy, but tlie Singapore ones only own the 
Kong-sl. or Club houses. The Singapore and Penang societies 
delivered up their chops and books, and the diplomas of the 
six Triad branches were formally renounced and burnt in 
the presence of two English officials. Chinese Advisory 
Boards have been instituted to assist the officials. 

There would seem to be no Grand Master of the ^vhole 
Triad body, but a central government is in existence, 
composed of the five Grand Masters of the five Grand Lodges of 
Funken^ Kwangtung, Yunnan, Hunan, and Chekiang. This 
governing body then has some sort of control over millions 
of Chinese, not only in China itself but throughout the world. 

One writer says of this organisation: — 'These principles, the 
repudiation of all jurisdiction, and the assumption of their power 
by an irresponsible tribunal, constitute an inipcriuin in iinpcrio, the 
foulest, the bloodiest, the most oppressive of which there is record 
on such a scale.' Another says:— 'The Hung League has carried 
civil war and murder wherever it has gone.' Yet another says: — ' They 
engage to defend each other against the police, to hide each other's 
crimes, to assist detected members in making their escape from justice.' 
And yet again another says : — That it is a 'combination to carry out 
private quarrels, and to uphold the interests of the members in spite 
of law, and lastly to raise money by subscription or by levying fees 
on brothels or gaming houses.' 

Here then is sufficient reason for their suppression, and, 
owing to the misuse of their power, and the rioting and murders 



o58 THINGS CHINESE. 

committed by them in the Straits Settlements, they have been 
forbidden there as secret unregistered Associations, The most 
recent legislative enactment against them in Hongkong is 
Ordinance No. 8 of 1887, by which the Triad Society is declared 
to be unlawful, and the managers and office-bearers are liable to 
a fine of a thousand dollars and to imprisonmer.t for one year; 
the former Ordinances which related to them were No3. 1 
and 12 of 1845, which meted out more drastic punishment 
than the last one mentioned above. Some of the prominent 
members of the Society have been deported by the Hongkong 
Government, when necessity arose for it, for unfortunately 
in this colony, they have degenerated into nests of thieves 
and bands of robbers. 

In the United States they have done great injury to the 
well-being of those who did not belong to their societies. 

This account of the Triad Society will show what 
Chinese secret societies are capable of both in China and 
abroad. There are hundreds of these secret societies in China 
itself, but they are not all political in their aim : some are 
merely sects of Buddhists ; one in the North, 'The T'sai Li,' or 
Temperance Society, forbids the use of tobacco, Avine and 
spirits, amongst its other tenets and prohibitions, and has 
a large membership, there being nearly 50,000 in Chihli 
province and Peking. Its doings were exposed some 
years ago ' by certain members of the society by which ' it 
Avas hoped that ' a serious outbreak in the capital might 
possibly be averted.' The government tried to keep matters 
secret. It is said that 80,000 members of it were to be 
found under Li Hung-chang's rule a few years ago. 

An association which has attracted some attention lately 
is the Ko-lo-wui, which has its head-quarters in the province 
of Hunan, the army being quite honey-combed by this political 
Association which, like the Triad, has for its object the over- 
throw of the present dynasty. It is said to have its emissaries 
in every province, who travel under the assumed character of 



SOCIETfES. SECRET. ooiJ 

doctors, disseminating news and gathering in members as they 
go. It was believed by some to be answerable for the riots, a few 
years ago, directed against foreigners in Central China (see 
Article on Riots). Its organisation is in all probability on 
somewhat similar lines to that of the Triad Society, for there 
are five Heads. Certificates printed on linen, (a fac-simile of 
one is given in 'The China Review,' Vol. XV., p. 129), Sec. 
and an elaborate initiation ceremony is said to be employed. 
It is described as resembling Freemasonry and not essentially 
seditious ; but opportunities for a thorough study of it have 
not yet been afforded to those interested in such subjects. It 
took its rise at the time of the T'ai-p'ing rebellion, General 
Tseng Kwo-fan himsDlf, so it is reported, having established 
it at the siege of Nanking ; but this body, instead of seeking 
to re-establish the Ming dynasty, would appear to look 
further back, even as far as to the T'ang dynasty, and, probably, 
if their chance ever comes, some one will be put forward as of 
reputed Imperial descent from rulers of that dynasty, though 
the house of T'ang is supposed to be extinct long since. 

•The Kolao-hwci Society is known to liave been in existence for 
the past twenty years and there are great numbers of men connected 
with it, distributed over the provinces of Kiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, 
Hupeh, Kiangsi, and Kwangtung.' 

A secret society which committed tlie massacres on the 
missionaries at Kuchcng in 1895, styled itself vegetarian. 
One of the members appears to have curedelght opium smokers. 
The Vegetarians were divided into nine companies. 

'When worshipping we present the following 8 kinds of things: — 
melon seeds, candy, red dates, black dates, pea-nuts, oranges, dried 
melons and dried lengkeng or dragon's eyes. The lengkeng is the 
symbol of the vegetarians.' The ceremony of saluting the flag is as 
follows: — ' We bring our palms together, and kneel down five times 
before it to worship heaven, earth, the Emperor, our parents, and 
teachers, after which we kneel three times to salute our brothers, 
other relatives, and friends.' 

Bixilm ri-ci>nnii{'ii(h-(J : — -The Tliinu Ti Hwui,' hy (J. S('lilp,i;f 1, contiiin-; 
tlie fullest account of the Triiid .Society that liii.s yet been piihlislied, :unl, 
to tlie student who wi.-^Iies to enter into ii. knowledije of its niy.sterie.-*. is 
reconuiiended. It is ilhistr.ited witli (li,n,i,'ranis of diplonias and flags, <.^c. 
For the ijencral reader. :i sliort article in • Harper's Magazine" for September 



560 THINGS CHINESE. 

1801, entitled, ' Chine.'^e Secret Societies," bj' F. Boyle, will be found 
iiitei'ertting. A pa))er in the transactions of the Missionary' Conference, 
held at Shanghai in 1800, contains a list of a ffood man)' of these societies, 
in the province of Shan-tung, with some little account of tliem. In that 
province alone it is stated that there are over a hundi'ed secret societies. 
An account of the working's of these Secret Societies in the United States 
amongst the Chinese appears in a recent number of the ' California 
Illustrated Magazine.' 

STAMPS, — 0\Fing to the want of a general postal 
system in China under the auspices of the government (such as 
is now being introduced), there has been a great variety of 
stamps in use in the country. In fact the want of this general 
governmental system of posts in the past has. given rise to 
rather an anomalous condition of things with regard to the use 
of postage stamps. In Shanghai, letters may be posted at 
the French consulate for conveyance to Hongkong or foreign 
countries, by the Messageries IMaritimes ( the French mail ) 
steamers, French postage stamps being used, at first unsur- 
charged, but afterwards with the word ' Chine ' on them. 
In the same way letters are posted at Shanghai at the 
German consulate for conveyance by German mail steamers 
to simihir destinations, Garman stamps, as used in 
Germany, being affixed on the envelopes. If we are not 
mistaken, American stamps are used in a similar way in 
Shanghai, as well as possibly Japanese stamps. 

The first issue of stamps in China was, in Hongkong, 
by the British Colonial Government of the Colony. These 
stamps are not, however, confined in their use to the small, 
but important island of Hongkong ; but the British Govern- 
ment, for the convenience of its own and other foreign 
residents in China, was compelled, no other facilities existing, 
to establish Branch Post Offices of its own (under the control of 
the Hongkong General Post Office) at each of the treaty ports — 
in fact wherever there was a British Consulate — and the 
Hongkong postage stamps have been employed for many 
years in paying the postages between the difterent treaty 
ports, and between them and foreign countries. These Britisli 
Branch Post Offices had under their control only the mails con- 
veyed in foreign-built ships running between the places men- 
tioned above. For all leLters into the interior, the foreign 



STAMPS. r>()l 

resident, if he wished to send any, a very rare occurrence 
usually, had to depend upon the private, local, native posts until 
the establishment a few years since of the Imperial Chinese 
Postal Service. Though these stamps were British colonial 
stamps they have been more used in China, as above, than any 
other postage stamps. There have been a numbers of different 
issues, the first being in 18G2. The stamps procurable at 
the Hongkong Post Office, with their colours and year of 
first issue, are as follows : — 



n 


cents. 


4 


„ 


5 


)» 


lo 


„ 


20 


?t 


30 


«? 


50 


»? 



I 


dollar. 












2 


dollars. 












3 » 

5 5) 

Post cards. 


— 1 


cent. 










„ cards. 


'J 


cents 


('reply 


paid). 


4 


cents. 












S 


„ (w 


ith 


reply 


pa 


id). 





The Hongkong Jubilee stamp was only issued for three 
days on the anniversary of the jubilee of the colony, 22nd 
to 24'th January, 1891 ; it was a 2 cents rose stamp sur- 
charged with the words (in four lines, all over the face of the 
stamp) '1841 — Hongkong— Jubilee — 1891'. There have been 
several mistakes made by the Chinese printer in printing 
this surcharge, such as a small J, Sec. ; so that there are 
about four or five of these varieties and they are highly 
priced. Two other rare stamps are a twelve cents sur- 
charged on a ten dollars revenue stamp, and a two cents 
revenue stamp. They appear to have been used but a short 
time for purposes of postage. 

In connection with the Imperial Maritime Customs 
Post Office mentioned in our article on Posts, a series of 
stamps was issued in 1878. The stamps were rather large, 
the centre contained a dragon ; ' China ' was the device at 
the top, flanked in the top corners by the two Chinese characters 
T'ai Ts^nor. meanino: ' Great Pure,' that being the name taken 
by the present dynasty. The word ' Candarin ' or * Candarins' 
appeared at the bottom of the stamp, and in the two lower 
corners were the Arabic figures giving the number of can- 
darins the stamp stood for. A, candarin is a tenth of a 

2 Y 



562 THINGS CHINESE. 

mace, a mace being worth about 11 cents, say nearly three- 
pence halfpenny ; ten mace make one tael. On the right 
hand side (on the left of the dragon) and running down the 
stamp are the tliree Chinese characters, Yau Ching Kiik, stand- 
ing for Official Post Office, while the opposite column of 
Chinese (Chinese printing or writing is in vertical columns, 
not in horizontal lines like ours) were composed of the three 
Chinese characters representing the value of the stamp, viz., 
Yat {or Yi or Sam as the case was) Fun Ngan, one candarin 
(or there or five as the case was) for the denominations 
were 1, 3 and 5 candarins. The colours were green, lilac, 
and yellow respectively. 

The 1878 issue also contained the same denominations 
of stamps, but they were somewhat smaller, being about the 
size of the British stamps, the colours being green, rose, 
and yellow respectively. In other respects the stamps ai*e 
very similar, the general features of the two issues being the 
same. There seemed to be some slight difference in the 
shades of colour of some of the stamps, but whether it was 
due to fading or a different ink being used, wg cannot 
say. 

Out of this Customs Post has developed a Chinese 
Imperial Postal Service. Several issue of stamps, and sur- 
charges as Avell, have been provided for this department 
during the few years it has been in existence. They are 
distinguished by the Chinese dragon, and have their de- 
nominations on them in English and Chinese. 

Some years ago (in 1889) postage stamps were prepared 
for use in Formosa. They were rather laige. had a dragon 
and a horse on them and the word ' Formosa.' There were 
two issues, 20 cash rose, and 20 cash green (say about the 
value of one penny, English money). They do not seem to 
have been much used for postage purposes ; but were made 
to do service at one time as railway tickets — being sur- 
charged — on the short line of rail in Formosa. They are 
now of great value and collectors consider them great rarities. 



STAMPS. 503 

We have heard thirty dollars mentioned as a price asked for 
two. 

There is a Municipal Council in Shanghai which had a local 
Post Office. In 1865, a scries of five stamps was issued with a 
dragon in the centre, and ' Shanghai ' at the top, in English 
and Chinese. On the right hand side the words in Chinese, 
Shii Sun Kwi'in, Post Office, and on the other side the 
denomination, in some cases in cash, in others in candarins. 
There have been a number of issues since, and of surcharges, 
the devices in their general features being very similar. 

With regard to this Local Post Office, the followincr 



o 



statement may be of interest : 

'The Shanghai Local Post Office was taken over by the 
Imperial Post in November, 1897, and thoroughly reorganised, but 
Local Postage rates have been maintained.' 

Many years after the Shanghai Local Post issued its first 
stamps, a number of the small foreign municipalities at some 
of the other treaty ports followed the example of Shanghai 
and started Local Post Offices and issued sets of stamps. 
Hankow seems to have led the way amongst the riverine ports. 
Kiukiang following at a little distance, after which Chinkiang 
and Wuhu followed suit, and finallv, Ichanij and Chuncrkinsj. 
The coast ports have also not been behindhand with regard 
to these local issues, Chefoo, Foochow, and Amoy all having 
sets of stamps. Post cards were also prepared and used in 
some of these places and in one or two ports taxed stamps 
appeared. Different issues also succeeded one another from 
more than one of these local post offices. These ventures in 
many cases proved pecuniarily successful and the money thus, 
earned was applied to the necessary works in connection with 
the diff"erent municipalities; unfortunately the chief authority 
in England for philatelists frowned on the classing of such 
means of turning an honest penny (as many of the issues 
simply were) and they were soon considered as outside the 
pale of legitimate stamp collecting. Many of the stamps were 
quite unicjuc, pretty, and interesting- — sonic being finely 
executed, though <jthcrs were rather rude attempts. 

2 \- 2 



tj6l THINGS CHINESE. 

The latest is the issue of two stamps at Wei-hai-wei, 
where there being no post office 'a private firm started a 
courier post at irregular intervals.' They are very rare and 
command a high pricCj as only 4',()00 were printed. 

In the Portuguese settlement of Macao, there have been 
several issues of stamps by the Portuguese Colonial Govern- 
ment, commencing in 1878. The old issues command a good 
price. A number of surcharges have been used at different 
times; and there is a set of very neat post-cards. The 
denominations are in re^s. The Timour stamps were at first 
Maqao stamps surcharged. A Vasco da Gama Tricentenary 
set of stamps were issued a few years since in Macao. 

SUICIDE.— V^Q have already remarked that China 
has the unenviable notoriety of having more suicides than 
any other country, though those who know anything about 
the Chinese will not be surprised when we state that it is 
impossible to adduce absolute proof of such a statement. 
That there are many suicides cannot for a moment be 
doubted by those who have paid any attention to this grue- 
some su-bject. 

The causes which lead to such a rash, foolish, and wicked 
act in the West are not absent in China ; and besides those 
common to all states of civilisation and to all countries must 
be added some which are unknown to our modern conditions 
of life. Many suicides in China have their fons et origo 
in the peculiar marriage relationships of the Chinese ; for a 
very fruitful source of marital trouble in China is the much 
married state of many of its people — the polygamy sanctioned 
by the all powerful ' olo custom ' has to answer for not a 
few suicides of women. Slighted by her husband for some 
new favourite, jealous of the influence of another concubine, 
the Chinese wife flees from ills which appear to have no redress. 
Again, an inferior wife, oppressed and ill-treated by a 
superior wife has also, at times, recourse to such a misguided 
act. In some districts of country, the young girls so dread 
the matrimonial state that thev band together against beins: 



SUtClDK 565 

compelled to enter it and take the extreme measure of 
remonstrating against it by going hand in hand into some 
pond and drowning themselves. Again, in some districts near 
Foochow a species of suttee takes place and is considered to 
be a highly meritorious act, having even a quasi sanction of 
government. A widow in other parts of China, who refuses 
to live after the death of her husband also receives a meed 
of praise not only from officials but from friends as well. 

So common Avcre suicides from the Bridge at Foochow 
that a society was formed some years since to maintain four 
boats to be continually on the watch for the prevention of it 
— two to be in attendance above the bridge, and two below. 
To one unacquainted with Chinese life it may seem strange 
that Buddhists, as so many of the Chinese are, should go in 
direct contravention of one of the express commandments of 
Buddhism— not to take life ; and yet it is possibly due, in 
some measure, to the system of Buddhism that prevails in 
China that some of the suicides take place, for the doctrine of 
metempsychosis is one of the prominent tenets of Buddhism 
in China. Belief in a religion that in its popular aspects 
gives a leading position to the idea of the transmigration 
of souls, and holds out the hope that the ill deeds of this life 
and its good actions are punished or rewarded by future 
avatars, cannot act eft'ectively as a deterrent against self- 
murder ; such a religion cannot thunder out as strong 
anathemas against, or denounce with as equal force, the 
crime of suicide, as a religion that is based on a different 
and more rational system of future rewards and punishments. 
With such a creed, some Chinese suicides may therefore hope 
to return to this mundane sphere of existence again. 

Added to all this is the sliofht esteem in which human 
life is held, as for instance, with regard to infanticide, the 
neglect of beggars, and in the matter of the death penalty 
so freely exacted, as in our own countries fifty or a hundred 
years ago. for offences so trivial when weighed against the 
sacredness of human life. With such a low estimate of the 
worth of human existence, it would appear to take but little 



566 THINGS CHINESE. 

more to neglect the fostering of one's own existence when 
a sea of troubles overwlielms one — but a step further to 
shuifle off this mortal coil one's self — to act with an assump- 
tion of power unwarranted by the facts, and to usurp 
the right of life and death over one's own mortal being. 
But, as tending often to the comparatively light heart with 
which many a Chinaman, of his own accord, leaves this 
sublunary stage of existence, must be noted the curious 
feelings about revenge that they hold. One of the most 
dreadful things that can happen to a Chinese is to have 
a death take place on his premises or at his door. No 
enemy thirsting for an adequate quid pro quo, to balance up 
the account of injury done him in the past, can hope, or 
desire, to have his enemy brought to book in a more effectual 
manner than by such an untoward event happening to his 
adversary. Here then is the chance long looked for and 
almost despaired of: here is an opportunity too good to 
let slip of doing a mortal injury to the hated one ; for a 
trumped-up charge of murder or ill-treatment can easily be 
laid at the yamen, and all the minions of the law — the hosts 
of harpies of the unjust mandarin with all the ungovernable 
rapacity that they are infamous for will be let loose on the 
unfortunate householder. Even without a formal charge 
being laid against him the ordinary course of procedure must 
be followed by the great annoyance of the visit of the 
equivalent of our Coroner, and the grand chances for all his 
underlings of having squeezes, pressure being brought to 
bear on him in an infinitude of ways never dreamed of in our 
favoured lands of the West. If the dead body of a poor, 
helpless, unknown, and unbefriended beggar will start the 
whole machinery of oppression and injustice, and bring untold 
miseries upon an unfortunate householder at whose door the 
corpse has been found, to the delight of his malicious enemy — 
if all this is the resultant of such a simple and not uncommon 
accident, it is but a step further for the quick-witted enemy, 
or man who has been injured and who has no other means, 
cither on account of poverty or insignificance, of avenging 
himself on his foe, it is then but a step further for such an one 



SUrcWK. 5«7 

to hit upon the expedient of forcing cii'(?umstances in his own 
favour, and, as even dead beggars are not procurable at a 
moment's notice, or, if procurable the difficulties of transporta- 
tion ofter insuperable obstacles in the way of their employ- 
ment — it is but a step further for such a man to offer himself 
as a substitute for the dead beggar, a sacrifice on the altar of 
wounded feelings or outraged justice. In China, this is one 
of the most telling modes of wiping out one's injuries, for 
besides the troubles that would result from any dead body 
being found in such a position, they are intensified by the 
knowledge that the dead body is that of one injured and so 
outraged that his feelings could brook no revenge short of 
that awful act that his silent body testifies to, the dead and 
solemn witness of the victim of injustice or oppression. 
There seems nothing incongruous to the Chinese mind in 
such an action. The only drawback is that the act once 
committed cannot be repeated ; and a case is actually known 
of a man on the point of thus committing suicide bewailing 
the inexorable circumstance of the hard fact which would 
prevent him immolating himself in the houses of two enemies 
instead of in that of one alone. Ghosts to annoy the man ; 
the necessity of purchasing a coffin at least and trying to 
hush up the matter with the relatives by money freely given, 
the dangers of squeezes from official underlings and of the 
interference of the officials themselves, as stated above ; and 
lastly the trouble which may be brought on his enemy in 
a future state of existence — these all render such a mode 
of revenge one the most effective that can be taken. The 
chance, or almost certainty, of trouble with the officials has 
also given rise to the custom or necessity, generally, of pro- 
viding a coffin for any poor beggar who may have chanced 
to crawl to one's door when in extremis and expired there. 
At the very least one may only hope to escape by being 
a subscriber should the people of the neighbourhood be will- 
ing to form a fund for this particular case. 

High officials who are condemned to death have some- 
times, as an act of Imperial clemency, a silken cord sent to 



568 THINGS CHINEl^E. 

them by the Emperor to strangle themselves with, instead 
of having the indignity offered them of suffering at the hands 
of the common executioner. 

The most common modes of suicide are by opium-taking 
and drowning. With the Chinese superstitions as to the 
consequences of going into ths next world with a mutilated 
body (for they believe the same mutilation will be permanent, 
in a future state of existence, and it is for this reason that 
decapitation is the general mode of capital punishment, 
as, once beheaded, the ghost would be a headless one), they 
do not inflict on themselves bodily injury or wounds such as 
would result from the use of a razor or fire-arms for the 
purpose of suicide. 

The ' swallowing of gold ' is the term sometimes 
employed for suicide amongst wealthy Chinese. It has been 
the universal belief that gold leaf or gold was actually 
^swallowed and suffocated the victim, and such, possibly, or 
even probably, does happen in some cases, but doubt has been 
thrown on the whole subject of late. It would be satisfactory 
before deciding against the belief of both foreigners and 
Chinese, and the circumstantial statements of the latter, to 
have convincing proofs from many sources that ' swallowing 
gold' is only another of those euphemistic phrases the 
Chinese are so fond of. 

The following attempt, made by one resident in the West 
of China, is interesting as an attempt to arrive at the number 
of suicides in China, and Me therefore give it hi ^.rfenso. 
It was published in 1898: — 

THE LAND OF SUICIDES. 



500,000 CASES A YEAR. 



'The fourth Chinese moon of the present year contained thirty 
days, and ended on June 18. In those thirty days, persons came to our 
home seeking help in nineteen cases of opium suicide, and one of opium 
poisoning. China may truly be called the land of suicides. I have 
gathered statistics from five cities in four different provinces. These 
were given me by missionaries working in these cities, who came in 
contact with the cases recorded. 



S (lie WE. 560 

The fust cily is in the Province of Yunnan, and has a population 
of 100,000. The cases of opium suicide in which the missionary's 
help was solicited amounted to an average for twelve months of one 
a day. 1 ha\e known four cases in one day. 

The second city in the same province has a population of about 
50,000, and in one year the missionaries were called to seventy-two 
cases. 

The third city is in the Province of Kueichou, and has about 
80,000 people. In one year three hundred cases occurred in which 
the missionaries' help was sought. Once, eight cases of suicide 
happened in one day. 

The fourth city is in the great Province of Sz-chuan, and has 
a population of 300,000. When the statistics were taken there were 
two missions working in the city. In one year the missionaries of 
one of these missions were asked to save life in four hundred cases 
of opium suicide. 1 have no record of what the other mission did. 

The fifth city is in the Province of Anhwei, the home of the 
notorious Li-hung-chang. The city has a population of 50,000, and 
in one year eighty cases were brought to the missionary's notice. 

Thus, in a population of 580,000, more than 1,200 cases of opium 
suicide occurred in twelve months in which the help of missionaries 
was sought. It is rather uncertain work to argue from these figures 
to the whole of China. Most of these statistics refer to the west 
of China, which is pre-eminently the opium growing district of China. 
The drug is cheap and easily obtained. On the other hand, such 
vast quantities are exported from these provinces that in many other 
parts more than 80 per cent of the adult males are users of the drug. 
In nearly the whole of China opium can be readily and cheaply 
obtained. 

I have only I'ecorded the cases in which the help of the mis- 
sionary was requested. Thei'e are many cases where native remedies 
are successfully used, and the aid of the hated foreigner is not called 
in. We have noticed on many occasions that the missionary is not 
sent for till all other help has failed. Taking these figures and facts 
into account, I do not think any one who understands the case will 
say I exaggerate when I reach the conclusion that in China every 
year half a million people attempt suicide by opium. If the average 
of the figures above held true for the whole of China, then the number 
would be one million of attempted suicides every year. Surely China 
may be termed the Land of Suicides! The majority of these cases 
are women, who, having no appeal in law against the tyranny and 
cruelty of husbands, mothers-in-lav/, or brothers-in-law, make their 
appeal through suicide to the god of Hades. In many a case a woman 
can only escape from a cruel fate by death. A young girl of about 
seventeen summers lived three doors from the first house occupied 
by the missionaries in this city. Her parents sold her to a man 
nearly three times her age. The night before he came to take her 
away she swallowed opium and before morning hud escaped his 
lustful clutches. 

2 W 



5^0 THINGS CHINESE. 

Quite a number are double suicides. Two persons quarrel. 
One carries the case into Hades by suicide, hoping both to get the 
first chance there and to involve the surviving one in trouble, knowing 
he will be accused of so persecuting the first one that there was no 
help for it but suicide. The second resolves to stop this by following 
the first, and removing the whole theatre of war to the Land of 
Shades. In one such case in this city one of the patients was too far 
gone to be saved, whereas the other could easily be restored. The 
friends, seeing how matters stood, said : ' If one dies, let both die,' and 
refused absolutely to render any help. I have before now saved the 
husband in one room and the wife in another. 

We are successful in about So per cent, of the cases. Sometimes 
the suicides struggle like demons before they will be saved. A 
friend of mine was called to a strongman who resisted all efforts to 
make him take an emetic. At last, with the aid of some of the 
friends, he was pinioned on a table and held there by the weight of a 
big door placed on him. This was indeed dragging a man by force 
from the jaws of death. After the paroxysm is over the patient is 
usually amenable to all reasoning. 

On one occasion I was alone with a strong young fellow who 
resisted all my efforts to do what his mother begged me to do. He 
dashed my medicine away in a furious rage and refused to be saved. 
Not feeling equal to tying him up and saving him by force, I appealed 
to his superstitions by opening my eyes wide and roaring at him as 
a 'foreign devil' is supposed to be able to roar. The result was a 
quiet, easy cure. Later on the victim thanked me heartily. 

Sometimes we are not called in till the patient is dead, and even 
then we are expected to succeed. One strong man, the only son of his 
mother, lost all his money in a gambling bout. He came home and 
swallowed opium. When too late his mother asked our help. On 
seeing the case we told the poor woman her son was dead and beyond 
our assistance. Thereupon her tears fel^ like the rain, and she dashed 
her head furiously against the wall again and again, crying in agony, 
' My son ! My only son ! ' 

What a sarcastic misnomer to term this land of suicides the 
Celestial Land ! 

S. P. 
Chaotong, West China.' 

BooU recommended. — For an account of Chinese suttee, prevalent in ■ 
the country near Foocliow, see Sir Walter Medhurst's 'The Foreigner in 
Far Cathay," p. 105. 

SUN, MOON, AND STARS.— The sun^ moon, and 
stars, with that fondness for numerical categories which 
possesses the Chinese, are classed together as 'The Three 
Lights.' The first is supposed to be four thousand miles 
distant from the earth, and the heavens, by one writer, to 
be seventy-three thousand miles off. After this it would be 



SUJSr, MOON, AND STARS. 571 

superfluous to adduce any more instances of the knowledge, 
or rather want of knowledge, of the Chinese of the heavenly 
bodies. A raven in a circle represents the sun. 

The Chinese are more gallant than we are with regard 
to the moon. They do not see any man in the moon, but 
their legend, instead of being that of a man gathering sticks 
on the Sabbath, and being sent to the moon as a punishment, 
is of a female beauty, Chang-ngo by name, who drank the 
elixir of immortality and went to the moon, where she 
Avas transformed into a toad, Avhich Chinese eyes still trace 
in the shadows visible on that luminary's surface. One of 
the most popular festivals is that of the moon, which is 
Avorshipped in autumn, and moon-cakes are made and 
exposed for sale everywhere. These are circular indigestible 
cakes, elaborately decorated in the more expensive varieties, 
and enclosed in circular pasteboard boxes with a piece of 
netting over the top. The children go wild over them, and 
each little youngster is provided with one to admire and 
gloat over. 

The stars are arranged in constellations which would 
quite puzzle the Western astronomer, though we question 
if their combinations into nominal clusters are any more 
arbitrary than our system of grouping them. 

The five planets, according to the Chinese system, are 
Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, A most wonderful 
system is evolved from the elementary correspondences of 
these planets with water (Mercury), fire (Mars), wood 
(Jupiter), metal (Venus), and earth (Saturn) ; the combina- 
tions and permutations of which are the cause of the different 
effects produced in the visible universe. The above are 
supposed to be intimately connected with the five colours, 
black, carnation, azure, white, and yellow; with the five 
human viscera ; and with the five tastes, &c. To descend 
from the wild visionary ideas of this scheme of philosophy, 
falsely so-called, we next find ourselves in the mazes of 
superstition as regards the stars ; for not a few of them are 

2 w 2 



572 THINGS CHINESE. 

objects of worship, some of the most popular being the Seven 
Sisters, for the Chinese, in common with the ancient Greeks, 
represent the Pleiades as such. At their festival a paper-tray 
filled with seven imitation mirrors, and other objects in 
sets of seven, are burnt as offerings to these star spirits. 

Eclipses are a source of terror to the mass of the Chinese, 
who believe that a celestial dog has the sun or moon in its 
jaws and is about to swallow it. Gongs are beaten to 
frighten away the monster : even the Government lends its 
sanction to this absurd superstition, and the high officials 
offer worship and add their official gongs to the general din 
of the ignorant populace. See ' Fetichism : A contribution 
to Anthropology and the History of Religion,' by F. 
Schultze, Dr. Phil. Chap. 6, Sect. 3, and Sir John Lubbock's 
' The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of 
Man,' Fourth Edition, pp. 229—233, for similar beliefs and 
practices amongst other nations. 

TAOISM AND ITS FOUNDER.— 

' Taoism embraces the primeval religion of China and all the 
intellectual tendances which did not find satisfaction in Confucianism. 
To these belong the various experiments in natural philosophy, and 
in connection with them the belief in the possibility of overcoming 
death by means of the elixir of immortality. By this, man enters 
the everlasting life, leads a higher existence above the range of 
material laws, in beautiful grottoes, on the sacred mountains, or on 
the islands of the blessed, and so on. It is worthy of note that such 
a belief, which bears some faint resemblance to the Christian belief 
of the Resurrection, should have found acceptance from the earliest 
to most recent times among the sober Chinese. There is a record of 
the names of thousands of people who are supposed to have reached 
this condition of immortality, and the life history of many of these 
is preserved. It has even been asserted that more than 100,000 had 
reached this goal.' 

Thus writes Dr. Faber about this religion which influences 
the lives of almost all of the Chinese people to a greater or 
lesser extent. 

At about the same time that Confucius, the great Sage 
of China, Avas endeavouring to get his principles adopted, 
there lived another of China's great men whose views were 



TA0IS3I AND ITS FOUNDER .173 

diametrically opposed to those of Confucius, and whose 
opinions, or Avhose reputed opinions, formed the foundations 
of a system as powerful over masses of the Chinese as Con- 
fucianism itself. Of Lao-tsz our ignorance is profound : his 
birth is mystified with legend; of his life, little is known; 
and his death is hidden in obscurity. Amongst all the un- 
certainty and doubt is found a short treatise, his one work, 
' The Tao Teh King' ; its translation has taxed the best en- 
deavours of several eminent sinologists. Amidst its short, 
terse, ringing sentences, flash jewels of the first water, set 
in much that is obscure to the foreign reader, Avho longs to 
know what this ancient worthy, China's Grand Old Man, 
really meant. In Lao-tsz, the founder of Taoism, we have 
one of those men whose writings, life, and reputed actions 
have exerted an untold influence on the course of human life 
in this world, but of whom the world, during his life-time, 
took so little account that all that is authentically known 
about him may be summed up in a few lines : ' Even his 
parentage is surrounded with uncertainty, of his life we 
know nothing except one or two facts, and we are ignorant 
of the manner of his death and of the place of his burial. 
And yet he was one of the deepest thinkers China has 
produced.' This much appears to be certain, that he held 
some Government appointment. Keeper of the Archives, or 
Treasury Keeper, or Keeper of the Imperial Museum, as it 
has been variously rendered into English. This was in the 
state of Chau, and, foreseeing its inevitable downfall, he 
'resigned his ofiice and went into retirement, cultivating 
Tao and virtue.' The disorders increased in the state of 
Chau and, though living ' a life of retirement and oblivion,' 
his place of retreat Avas not secure from violence- So he 
started on that mysterious journey of which we have no 
record, to some bourne from whence the old traveller never 
returned ; lost to mortal ken he left behind him (^with the 
Keeper of the Pass, with whom he stopped some time before 
disappearing into obscurity) the small book mentioned 
above, the only literary remains we have of one wdio has 
exerted such an influence on the Chinese nation. 



574 THINGS CHINESE. 

Besides these facts we are told that Confucius met him ; 
and a son of the philosopher is mentioned who became a 
General in the state of Wei, but in a few generations, as far 
as we are aware, the line seems to have gone out in obscure 
darkness. 

Legend has gathered round the few facts until quite a 
halo has surrounded the old philosopher; myth and fable have 
crystallised round the short and simple story of his life till 
his whole being and actions are glorified ; they gleam and 
glitter with the splendour of the marvellous and are mag- 
nified into the wonderful and miraculous; added glories are 
borrowed from the meretricious charms of a debased and 
idolatrous Buddhism until the whole system is transformed, 
aided by the vagaries of its own professors, into a monstrous 
mass of charlatanism and thaumatui'gic mysteries which 
would shock Lao-tsz himself were another avatar granted 
him : for different incarnations are ascribed to him in the 
past, and attributes pertaining to the deity are freely given 
to him to raise him in popular estimation — attributes which 
in the Protestant West, being reserved for One alone, greaten 
Him, but which, in the polytheistic East, are belittled by 
being the common property of hundreds and thousands of 
heroes and demi-gods and saints innumerable. But to return 
to our present philosopher : being thus metamorphosed into 
one of the demi-gods of China's pantheon, his birth is made 
to take place amidst the marvellous — the sight of a 
falling star caused his conception, but he appears to have 
experienced reluctance in entering into the world, for he was 
81 years of age when he was born, being an old grey-beard, 
hence the names or titles by which he is known, Lao-tsz, 
'The Old Boy,' or 'The Ancient Philosopher,' and 'The 
Venerable Prince.' 

The Chinese always give their sages most extraordinary 
characteristics. As a sample of them we will give those 
which Lao-tsz was said to possess : — 

' His complexion was white and yellow ; his ears were of an 
extraordinary size, and were each pierced with three passages. He 



TAOISM AND ITS JVUNI)L:ii. 615 

had handsoiiic eyebrows, large eyes, ragged teeth, a double-ridged 
nose, and a square mouth ; on each foot he had ten toes, and each 
hand was ornamented with ten lines.' 

The small book which Lao-tsz left behind him contains 
only 5,000 words. It has been well said of it : — 

' Probably no widely-spread religion was ever founded on so 
small a base. Like an inverted pyramid the ever-creasing growth of 
Taoist literature and superstitious doctrines, which make the sum 
of modern Taoism, rests on this small volume as its ultimate 
support. We say " ultimate " advisedly, for other works have long 
surpassed it in popularity. Its philosophical speculations are far 
beyond the reach of the ordinary reader, and even scholars are obliged 
to confess that they have but a general idea of the meaning of the 
old recluse. " It is not easy," says one of the best known commenta- 
tors, "to explain clearly the more profound passages of Lao-tsz ; all 
that science is able to do is to give the general sense." To European 
scholars the difficulty is even greater. As Remusat remarks in his 
Mriiioire dc Lao-L&eii : " The text is so full of obscurity, we have 
so few means of acquiring a perfect understanding of it, so little 
knowledge of the circumstances to which the author makes allusion ; 
we are, in a word, so distant in all respects from the ideas under t he 
influence of which he writes, that it would be temei'ity to pretend to 
reproduce exactly the sense which he had in view, when that sense 
is beyond our grasp." It is, however, always easy to affix a plausible 
interpretation to that which is not susceptible of any definite explana- 
tion, and consequently a host of commentators and translators have 
arisen, who find in the Tao Teh King confirmation of their precon- 
ceived theories of his meaning and of their preconceived wishes on 
his behalf.' 

The Jesuit missionaries found in these mystical utter- 
ances of the first Taoist philosopher a knowledge of the 
Triune God, revealed five centuries before Christ, and the 
mystic name of Jehovah. These fanciful speculations, based 
probably on a misapprehension of a book most difficult of 
comprehension, are not now received with seriousness. 

'In the Tao Teh King, Lao-tsz has elaborated his idea of the 
relations existing between the L^niverse and that which he calls 
Taou.' 'The primary meaning of this name of a thing, which he 
declares to be " without name," is " The Way," hence it has acquired 
the symbolic meanings of " the right course of conduct," " reason," 
and it also signifies '' the word " ('Logos). By all these meanings it 
has been severally rendered by the translators of Lao-tsz's celebrated 
work. In support of each rendering it is possible to adduce quotations 
from the text, but none is the equivalent of Lao-tsz's Tao. The 
word Tao is not the invention of Lao-tsz. It was constantly in the 
mouth of Confucius and with him it meant the '• Way." The 
Cuddhists also used it in the sense of " Intelligence," and called their 



576 THINGS CHINESE. 

co-religionists Tao-jin, or " Men of Intelligence." If we were com- 
pelled to adopt a single word to represent the Tao of Lao-tsz, we 
should prefer the sense in which it is used by Confucious, " The Way," 
that is uidoBos " If I were endowed with prudence, I should walk 
in the great Tdo. "■'■' ■'■ * The great Tao is exceeding plain, but 
the people like the footpaths," said Lao-tsz (chapter 53). But it is 
more than the way. It is the way and the way-goer. It is an eternal 
road ; along it all beings and things walk, but no being made it, for 
it is Being itself ; it is everything and nothing and the cause and 
effect of all. All originate from Tao, conform to 7ao, and to Tao 
they at last return. 

Tao is impalpable. You look at it and you cannot see it. You 
listen and you cannot hear it. You try to touch it and you cannot 
reach it. You use it and cannot exhaust it. It is not to be express- 
ed in words. It is still and void ; it stands alone, and changes not ; 
it circulates everywhere, and is not endangered. It is ever inactive, 
and yet leaves nothing undone. From it phenomena appear, through 
it they change, in it they disappear. Formless, it is the cause of form. 
Nameless, it is the origin of heaven and earth ; with a name it is 
the mother of all things. It is the ethical nature of the good man 
and the principles of his action. If we had then to express the 
meaning of Tao, we should describe it as (i) the Absolute, the totality 
of Being and Things ; (2) the phenomenal world and its order ; and 
(3) the ethical nature of the good man and the principle of his 
action.' 

To the English reader this book is one of the most 
delightful of Chinese books of that class. — ' The deepest 
thought is to be found in the Taoist classical works.' — It 
seems to approach nearer to the grand truths so magnifi- 
cently expressed in parts of our own incomparable Bible. 
Its diction is simple ; its sentences terse ; but its style enig- 
matic ; the Westerner feels, though unable to put himself 
in complete rapport with the grand old philosopher, is more 
in sympathy with him than with the more highly lauded 
Confucius. In the words of one writer : ' In such utterances 
as these Lao-tsz showed himself to be as superior to Con- 
fucius as the Christian dispensation is to the Mosaic 
law.' 

As the first purity of Christianity was sullied by the 
superstitions and idolatry of the mediseval times, so a system 
of charms, idolatry, exorcism, elixirs of immortality, masses 
of superstition, et hoc yeniis oinne, have gathered round the 
original Taoism. This growth of centuries forms what is 



TAOISM AND ITS FOUNDER. 577 

now known as Taoism, and, in common with Buddhism, 
and an adhesion to Confucianism, stands for religion to the 
average Chinaman. It is believed in, in moments of danger 
and death, but laughed at in their sceptical hours by the 
better educated, who then profess themselves Confucianists 
alone ; it however, receives only formal acknowledgment 
from many, thoui^h its thauniaturgic priests, in harmony 
with those of the Buddhists, are relied on by all to rescue the 
souls of their relatives from the punishments of Hades by 
the performance of masses. 

Earlier Taouism boasts of two philosophers, Lieh-tsz 
and Chwang-tsz, who have been latinised as Licius and 
Chancius. We have nut the space to go into a dissertation 
on all their opinions. 

Suffice it to say of Licius that 'the belief in the identity of 
existence and non-existence, and the constant alternations from the 
one to tlae other observable in all nature, assumed in his eyes a 
warrant tor the old doctrine, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we 
die." ' 

• The vanity of human effort ' was Chancius's main theme, and 
the Coniucianists were the principal objects of his denunciations 
'The fussy politician who boasts of having governed the empire is 
given to understand that the empire would have been very much 
better governed if it had been left alone, and the man who seeks to 
establish a reputation is told that reputation is but " the guest of 
reality." He was at one with the code of Menu, and pronounced 
the waking state one of deceptive appearances, '■' * but though 
there was this unreality in existence, life was yet a thing to be c n ed 
for. <> « * '["his care for life was quite compatible * ''■' with 
a:i indifference for death.' Of his own funeral, he said :— ' I will 
have heaven and earth for my sarcophagus, the sun and moon shall 
be the insignia when 1 lie in state, and all creation shall be the 
mourners at my funeral.' 

The mass of Chinese have cast aside the philosophical 
and metaphysical spesulations of the old philosopher and his 
immediate followers, and on the small foundations of the 
Tao Teh King a superstructure of hay, stubble, rubbish, and 
rottenness has been rai.sed. They appear to have started off 
at a tangent from his ideas and evolved some elaborate 
systems wandering off into empty space. The craving of 
man for immortality degenerated into a fruitless search for 

X 2 



578 THINGS CHINESE. 

plants, which, when eaten, would confer it ; for charms which 
would bestow it ; for elixirs, the quaffing of which would 
send it coursing through one's veins. So strong were these 
beliefs that Taoist books were spared in the general de- 
struction by the hated Ts'in Chi Hwang-ti (B.C. 200) ; and the 
same monarch, who was a Taoist himself, dispatched a naval 
expedition to discover the 'golden isles of the -blest, where 
dwelt genii, whose business and delight it was to dispense 
to all visitors to their shores a draught of immortality, 
compounded of the fragrant herbs which grew in profusioa 
around them.' 

Magicians arose under the aegis of Taoism who ' professed to 
have mastered the powers of nature. Tbey threw themselves into 
fire without being burned, and into water without being drowned. 
They held the secret of the philosopher's stone, and raised tempests 
at their will.' 

So soon was the original Taoism of Lao-tsz forgotton, that al 
the vagaries of these mystic jugglers were believeJ in, ' and thel 
attention of all his professed followers was directed to obtaining 
the elixir of immortality and the philosopher's stone. a « « 
The m inia for these magic '1 arts among the Chinese during the 
Ts'in and Western Han dynasties seems to have been as general and 
as acute as the South Sea Scheme madness among our forefathers. 
From the emperors downwards the people devoted their lives to 
seeking immunity from death and poverty. lousiness of every kind 
was neglected, fields were left untilled, the markets were deserted, 
and the only people who gained any share of the promised benefits 
were the professors of Taoism who trafficked with the follies of their 
ountrymen, and who fattened on the wealth of the credulous.' 

One of the votaries is said to have been the Emperor Woo. 
" I know " said Le Shaou-keLin to the Enperor, " how to harden 
snow and to change it into white sih'er ; I know how cinnabar 
transforms its nature and passes into yellow gold. I can rein the 
flying dragon and visit the extremities of the earth ; I can bestride 
he hoary crane and soar above the nine degrees of heaven," and in 
teturn for these imaginary powers he became the chosen adv ser os 
he Emperor, and received the most exalted honours.' After thie 
reign, however, the Taoism of this character lost favour and ' thf 
ethics of Confucius and the mysticism of Lao-tsz ' grew in estimation 

Later on Imperial sacrifices were ordained to the 
philosopher ; and Buddhism exerted its influence on Taoism. 
With regard to the latter it is almost amusing to notice the 
plagiarism of the writers of Tcioist books in adopting into, 
and adapting to, their religion the legends and tales of the 



TAOISM AND ITS FOUNDER, 579 

idols of Buddhism ; for in modern Chinese thought and 
practice the saints and the deified doguias of Buddhism 
really form a pantheon of that religion. 

Taoism not only basked in Imperial favour at times, 
but tiho suffered the wirheriug scorn of those rulers who 
pinned ttieir faith exclusively to the tenets of the politico- 
ethical Confucianisnj. 'Asceticism and public worship soon 
became engiafted on the doctrine of Lio-tsz ; ' the Buddhists 
and Taoists, however, were sworn enemies, the one party 
taunting the other with being jugglers, while the other 
retorted that the Buddhi>ts were strangers in the land. With 
the accession of the Tang dynasty the dehisions of the 
elixir of immortality and the philosopher's stone began to 
exercise their influence over the minds of men. Lao-tsz was 
canonised,, and one of the Einp3rurs actually went so far as 
to introduca his writings into the syllabus for literary com- 
petitive examinations. The Taoists flourished and suffered 
alternately un ler different sovereigns and dynasties, until 
the time of the Sung dynasty. In A.D. 859, one of the 
Emperors found his death instead of eternal life in the elixir 
of immortality. Two of the sovereigns had already succumbed 
to it in A.D. 821- and 81'3. Shortly after that, in another 
150 years, Taoism lost its hold in the Imperial Court. A 
Chinese poem sums up this phase of Taoism and 'gives a 
concise view of the craze which seized on Chinese alchemists 
two thousand years ago, of which the search for the elixir of 
life and the philosopher's stone in Europe was a mere echo.* 
Dr. Martin thus puts it into English : — 

A prince tlie draui?ht immortal went to seek ; 
And finding it he soared above the spheres. 
In mountain caverns he had dwelt a week ; 
Of earthly time it was a thousand years. 

The priests of Lao-tsz married and were like the common 
people in all points but in the matter of paying taxes, from 
which they were exempt, though by their law or custom, in 
imitation of Buddhism, they were supposed to be celibates ; 
but •' under the first Emperor of the Sung dynasty (A.D. 
960-976), however, a return to a stricter system was enforced. 

2x2 



580 THINGS CHINESE. 

and they -were forbidden to marry.' At the present day the 
Taoist priests., who have become such since their marriai^e* 
retain their wives, nor are those who have not hitherto been 
married prevented from marrying, thus presenting a striliing 
contrast to the Buddhist priests. 

One of the books which exerts the greatest influence 
over the mass of the Chinese people is the ' Bo>k of Rewards 
and Punishments' which is based upon Taoism ; it leaves 
untouched the abstruse philosophy of Li')-tsz, but elaborates 
a system of morality for every-d ly life upon the f )u:i 1 itioti 
of his sayings. Amidst much chaff and m idem superstition 
there are many grains of truth and go()d advice, enforce.l by 
the promises of reward.s f^r good, virtu )us actions, and the 
threatening of evil-doers with present and future punishment. 

Another book must be mentioned in this connection as exerting 
an influence on the Chinese mind: it is 'The Book of Secret 
Blessings,' which has been described as having 'no refereice wliat- 
ever to the doctrines of Taois n, but only a number of moral injunc- 
tions of great ethical purity.' ' Theie two works may fairly be 
taken to represent the moral side of modern Taoism.- P'evv professing 
Taoists trouble themselves at the present day about the musings of 
Lao-tsz or the dreamy imagining? of his early followers. They pursue 
only their own good, mainly temporal, but also moral. To secure 
the former they have reco'iise to the magical works of the sect, and 
to the expounders of these, the Taoist priests. Tney buy charms and 
practice exorcisms, at the bidding and for the profit of these needy 
charlatans, and they study with never-failing interest the advice and 
receipts contained in the numberless books ^md pamphlets published 
for their benefit. Into some of these, Budd.iist ideas are largely 
imported, and the doctrine of the existence of hell, which fiinds no 
kind of canonical sanction, is commonly preached. Liturgies, also 
framed on Buddhist models, abound, and in some cases not only the 
form, but even the phraseology, of Hindoo works is incorporated into 
these prayer-books.' 

At the head of the Taoist pantheon stands a trinity in 
imitation of the Buddhist tiinity--that of the 'Three Pare 
Ones' — and though Taoism originally was not an idolatr<)U3 
system, the baneful influence of latter-day Bui Ihism on the 
Chinese mind has induced the votaries oi' the Chinese system 
(for, as has already been seen, Taoism is of native origin) 
to pander to the material instincts of the idolatrous mind, and 
a whole host of superior and inferior deities — gods, genii. 



TAOISM AND ITS FOUNDER. 581 

heroes, good men, and virtuous women, the spirits of stars 
and the visible manifestations of nature and of the elements, 
such as thunder and lii^htniiig, as well as dragons — have all 
been classed toiler her as object's of worship, while the G )d of 
Literature, and Gods and G tddesses of Disease, all rei*eive their 
share of attention. Below the trinity of Three Pure les, 
and above the others, presides the G)inineous Supreme Ruler 
and one of the stroncjest objections to the use of the words 
Shan<2^-ti (Supreme Ruler) as the equivalent in C.iin(>se for 
the Christian God is that this title is by comuion usage 
that par ex-elleace of th it idol, and the co nm on people 
instinctively think, of the Tioist Shuig-ti when the W)rd3 
are u>:ed, though it is employed in the ancient Chinese clas-tics 
in a difFerenc seuse. After these hierarchal deities come hosts 
of other gods : — 

' Star gods, the 28 constellations, the 60 cycle-stars, the 129 
lucky or unii.ic!>cy stars ; then the goii of the five ele neiits. of natural 
phenomena, of sic'cness and of medicine ; the ani nal gods, such as 
the fox, tiger, dragon, etc. ; the g ids of literafjre, specially the in- 
numerable local divinities at the head of which stand the city 
gods.' 

The Pope of Taoism, who lives in the Dragon and Tiger 
Mountains ' in the province of Kiang-si. is styled " Heavenly 
Teacher,' a title bestowrd on his first predecessor by one of 
the Chinese Emperors in A.D 423. Since then this dignity 
has been hereditary in the family. 

'The Chinese believe that this pope is head over the gods and 
spirits which are worshipped throughout the realm, that be instals or 
suspends, exalts or degrades them acording to i nperial — not divine ! 
— command. He grants an audience to tlie gods on the first of every 
month, and all attend, those of the heavens, the nether world, the 
ocean, etc. He has possession of the magic sword with which he 
controls the demons and shuts them up in e irthen pitchers. He 
rules as the representative on earth of the Jasper-god [the Gj.nmeous 
Ruler mentioned above] and grants the Taoist monasteries their 
licence.' ' Although popes have existed..for ne.irly 1,500 years, there 
is no record in Chinese history of any one of thein oppos. ng an im- 
perial libertine or of causing any wild rebel to relinquish his cause 
and settle down peacefully.' 

Another writer thus sums up Taoism: — describing its 
position in the Chinese eclecticism which stands for religioa 
Bmongst this curious people : — 



5«2 THINGS CHINESE. 

' In early Chinese records we find many references to the worship 
of Supernatural Beings ; tlie Emperor worships Heaven, the people 
worship the K"ds of each particular spot of land j Mountains and 
Streams are worshipped, and ihe Spirits of Departed Men. in fact 
they seen always to have been free — they now are — to picture in their 
minds and worship just what Supernatural Beings they chose. There 
was then in the Chinese mind, as there is now, a vague image of a 
Supernatural World consisting of countless Beings who were behind 
and controlled phenomena. The C lief of these Bemgs was called 
Shangti, the Supreme God. who s.-ems to have been pictured as 
ruling the Supernatural World, muc i as the Feudal Lord or Emperor 
ruled the Kiugdoais of wliich Chin i then consisted. To this state 
of things came Confuci :s who summed up the practical philosophy 
and eth;c5 of the diy and occupied with his teaching the sphere of 
human relations— man's duty to his neighb )ar— bat left the rest much 
as he foaai it. Taea foUo.veJ BadJiis;n from India and occupied 
the sphere of man's relations to a future life, with fi.xed tenets and 
teaching, in fict a Religion— and the first China had heard of. Tnat 
she had no religion of her ovn is proved b/ the fact that she has no 
word with th it meaning, kiao, the word in use, meaning no more 
than " doctrine." Taoism was the attempt of the native scholars to 
make out of t'le heterogeneous m iterials of Niture Worship a religion 
after the mo i el of., and to serve as a rival to. Buii'iism e « « « 
But to the above a correction must be applied tending, however, to 
made the subject matter of Taoism more mixed still. Taere is (i) 
Lao Tzus te iching about Tao, the wa\> ; and there is (2) the Black 
Art, the se irch for the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone— these 
two have both been impoitant elements in Taoism and cannot be 
disregarded : the second requires no explanation. Chinese alchemy 
seems to have followed much the same course as in the West. In 
regard to Tao we will venture a word of explanation for it is far the 
most important term in Chinese philosophy and seems to embrace 
a valuable idea. What does it mean .? Taewzvo^ right course. But 
whither ? Suppose the universe of mind and matters to be subject to 
immutable forces and laws from the effects of which man has abso- 
lutely no hope of escape ; and suppose a man contemplated doing 
somethinj' whether with hands or with his brain, there is one best 
way to effect his object and that best wa^ is Tao. It is true that the 
word is often very vaguely used but in its abstract sense it usually 
means either (i) the immutable laws of the universe themselves when 
it corresponds to Jiitii; -, of the Stoics (See Walter's learned disquisi- 
tion on this word " Essays in the Chinese Language, " page 2:9) or (2) 
the right way to act with regard to those laws as explained above. 

Clearly this idea of 7"i(j. is for the learned, and alchemy being 
long ago dead, there remains only Nature-worship — and that is what 
Taoism is for the mass of the people,' combined with the worship of 
a host of idols.' 

BooTis recommended. — Professor Douglas's ' Confucianism and Tao- 
ism,' contains an interesting monograph on this religion, from which we 
have largely quoted in the above article. Specimens of the tales of Taoism 
will be found in 'Scraps from Chinese Mythology,' by Rev, Dyer Bail, 



TEA. 5SJ 

M.A., M.0. Annotated by J. Dyer Ball, printed in Vols. IX. XL, XII., and 
XIII., of • Tim Cliina Review.' See also ' China in the Lijrht of Hiatory, 
a series of papers translated from the Gjrnnin and published in 'The 
Chinese Recorder and Misiion:iry Journal.' Vol. XXVII.. pp. 887-390 
Article Taoism. Al^o see Books re ■oniniended at the end of the Article on 
Philosophy. The Lo Fau Mountains : An Excursion by F. S. A. Bourne, 
pp. 27, 28 and 29. 

TEA.-^'l\\Q names for tea in the West are amongst the 
few words derived from Chinese, and weie introduced witli 
the leaf into Europe. These names, though they seem dis- 
similar in some languages, are all originally from the same 
words, the differences being dus to the paiticular Chinese 
speech (or so-called dialect) from which they have been bor- 
rowed. In the Fuhkienese tvpe of languages, tea is known 
by the word te (pronounced teh), and it is from this source 
that the French word the, the Italian t), the Sp luish te^ 
German thee, Dutch Mee, Danish the, Gaelic te (pronounced 
tay ) and Malay teh, are all derived, as well as our Eagli.sh word 
tea. In the greater p;irt of the Chinese empire the word for 
'the cup that cheers but not inebriates' is dvd (pronounced 
ch'ah) and it is froai this pr onouuciation of it that the names 
used in Russia {tt-hai}, in Portugal (chd), and in Italy [cid) are 
derived. Strange to say the Italians, however, have two names 
for tea, cii. and te, the latter, of course, is from the Chinese word 
<<2, noticed above, while the former is derived from the word 
ch'd. It is curious to note in this connection that an early 
mention, if not the first notice, of the word in English is 
under the form chx (in an English Glossary of A.D. 1671) : 
we are also told that it was once spelt ^.;Aa— both evidently 
derived from tiie Cantonese foim of the word : but thirteen 
years later we have the word derived from the Fokitniese te, 
but borrowed through the French and spelt as in the latter 
language the ; the next change in the word is early in the 
following century when it drops the French spelling and 
adopts the present form of tea, though the Fokienese pro- 
nounciation, which the French still retain, is not dropped 
for the modern pronounciation of the now wholly Anglicised 
word tea till comparatively lately. It will thus be seen that 
we, like the Italians, might have had two forms of the word, 



584 THINGS CHINESE. 

had we not discarded the first, which seemed to have made 
but little lodgment with us, for the second. 

The tea bush belongs to the botanical family of the 
Ternstroemiaceae to which the camellia likewise belongs. It 
is an evergreen and ' has come lately to be looked upon by 
many as only a particular species of the genus camellia, 
since theie are no generic differences {e.g., in Bentham and 
Hooper's '• Genera Plantarum." j' It does not grow in the 
•northern provinces of China; but ranges between the 
twenty-third and thirty-fifth degrees of latitude. Though 
tea will grow on poor soil, it has been proved, by experiments 
in India, that the best soil for it is a friable light-coloured 
porous one with a fair proportion of sand and a superabun- 
dance of decaying vegetable matter on the surface. To pro- 
duce good tea, high cultivation is necessary : a small planta- 
tion with such cultivation will pay better than one twice 
the size with low cultivation. Tea, especially the China 
variety, will grow in varying climates and soils, but it will 
not flourish in all of them. ' Taa rainf ill sh )uld not be less 
than 80 to 100 inches per annum.' It can grow where the 
thermometer falls below freezing point, but it 'cannot be 
too hot for tea if the heat is accompanied with moisture.' 
The yield is double in a hot and moist climate from what it is 
in a comparatively dry and temperate one, for it yields most 
abundantly with hot sunshine and showers and with the 
rain equally diffused, i'ogs, in the early part of the year, ia 
the morning, and a considerable amount of rain in February, 
Mai'ch, and April, benefit the plant. Hot winds combined 
with a dry temperature do not suit it. These observations 
on the right climaie for tea are the results of experiments 
in India ; and any one knowing that of Southern China will 
see that these are just the climatic conditions of that part of 
the world. 

Botanists do not yet seem to have found out ' whether 
China, the land where it has been so long cultivated, is its 
original home, and, if so, which part of China.' ' No accounts 
have come to us of the tea shrub being cultivated for its 



TEA. 585 

infusion till A.D. 350.' The tea plant in China is the com- 
mon tea bush. In Assam, where it was discovered fifty years 
ago, it has been looked \x\vn\ as an indigenous plant. The 
China plant grows to bo six or scvon fe^'t in heiglit in India, 
while the Assam plant boconus a little tree (but it is said 
if the China tea plant is allowed to grow, it also attains con- 
siderable size) and gr(jws to the height (jf fifteen or eighteen 
feet. In China, the tea plants seldom exceed three feet, ' most 
of them are half that height, straggling, and full of twigs, 
often covered with lichens,' but the ground round them is 
well hoed and clean. Unlike the large tea gardens in India 
the Chinese plantations are simply little patches, often on 
the shopes, or at the foot of hills, where both drainage and 
moisture are easily provided. The tea growers either pick 
he leaves themselves or sell them to middle-men. The leaf 
tof the China tea plant is fnur inches long at the most, andof 
a dull dark-green colour; while the lowest branches grow out 
close to the ground. •' The tea flower is small, single, and white, 
has no smell, and soon falls * * * The seeds are three 
small nuts, like filberts in colour, in a tiiangular shell which 
splits open when ripe, with valves between the seeds.' All 
the diff"erent varieties of the tea plant have probably arisen 
from culture. When ripe, in October, the nuts are put in 
a mixture of damp san:l and earth ; they are thus preserved 
fresh till spring, when, in Mirch, they are sown in a nursery ; 
a year after, the shoots are ti-ans|:)lanted, being put in rows 
about four feet apart. The leaf is first plucked wdien the 
shrub is three years old, and the picking is continued till 
the eighth year, on an average. 

The first picking of the tea leaf is that over which the 
most pains is taken, and consists or the young leaTes, a great 
many of which are not fully grown. There is a whitish 
down on the^e leaves, and from this circumstance comes the 
namej96Coc', the words in Cliiuese from which it has been 
derived meaning ' white down.' In this connection it may 
be interesting to give the derivation of some of the other 
names of tea. Hyson, so we are told, is a corruption of two 

2 Y 



586 THINGS CHINESE. 

Chinese words, yu-ts'in, ' before the rain/ the young hyson 
being half-opened leaves plucked in April before the spring 
rains, but with regard to this explanation it may be said 
that the Chinese have a variety of teas known as yu-ts'in, so 
named for the reason given above. We also read that hyson 
is derived from the name Hi-chun. Hi-chun, so the story 
goes, was a maiden living about two hundred years ago, 
who introduced a better method of sorting her father's tea, 
which so increased his business that the tea was named after 
her. Of this pretty story it may be remarked, se non e verOj 
e ben trovato. The meaning of the Chinese characters used, 
viz. : hi-chun ' felicitous spring,' though perhaps more pro- 
saic than the above explanations of the derivation of the 
name is still sufficiently poetical to satisfy one without 
searching further. Sou-chong means small, or rare variety. 
Congou means work or worked, from being well worked, 
while Bohea is the name of the hills in the Pah-kien province 
where that variety of tea is grown. The same province also 
gives the well known tea name, oo-long, i.e., black dragon. 
Here we have another story to account for the origin of 
this name : — A black snake (and snakes are sometimes look- 
ed upon as dragons in China) was coiled round a plant of 
this tea, and hence the name. 

But to return to the tea pickings : care has to be exer- 
cised in plucking so as not to injure the plant and prevent 
a supply of future ' flushes,' as they are technically called. 
After the spring rains the second plucking is made ; this 
takes place in different latitudes at different times, say from 
15th May to June : it is then that the tea plant is in full 
leaf. Women and children strip the twigs, and fifteen 
pounds picked in a day by one person is considered good 
work, but the pay is only six or eight cents. Oae tea tree 
will yield from eight or ten to sixteen or twenty-two ounces 
of leaf. This second picking only lasts ten or twelve days. 
The curing is done as following : — 

The leaves are first * thinly spread on shallow trays to dry off 
all moisture by two or three hours exposure 'to the air by day, or 
they are left out over-night. 'They are thrown into the air and 



TEA. 587 

tossed about and patted till they become soft ; a heap is made of 
these wilted leaves and left to lie for an hour or more, when they 
become moist and darK in colour. They are then thrown on the hot 
pans for five minutes and rolled on the rattan table, previous to 
exposure out-of-doors for three or four hours on sieves, during which 
time they are turned over and opened out. After this they get a 
second roasting and rolling to give them their final curl. When the 
charcoal fire is ready, a basket, shaped something like an hour-glass,' 
but about three feet high ' is placed endwise over it, having a sieve 
in the middle, on which the leaves are thinly spread. When dried 
five minutes in this way they undergo another rolling, and are then 
thrown into a heap, until all the lot has passed over the fire. When 
this firing is finished, the leaves are opened out, and are again thinly 
spread on the sieve in the basket for a few minutes, which finishes 
the drying and rolling for most of the heap, and makes the leaves a 
uniform black. They are now replaced in the basket in greater mass, 
and pushed against its sides by the hands in order to allow the heat 
to come up through the sieve and the vapour to escape ; a basket 
over all retains the heat, but the contents are turned over until per- 
fectly dry and the leaves become uniformly dark.' 

The green tea is subjected to somewhat similar 
operations, with the exception of the fermentation process- 
* While the leaves of each species of the shrub can be cured 
into either green or black tea, the workmen in one district 
are able by practice to produce one kind in a superior style 
and quality ; those in another region will do better with 
another kind.* * The colour of the green tea, as well as its 
quality, depends very much on rapid and expert drying.' 
The sea air is a sworn enemy to all delicately fired leaves, 
and tea, to be perfection, requires to be lightly fired. The 
caravan teas, so called from being transported overland 
through cold dry countries, were able to dispense with ' the 
final thorough heating in the drying establishments of the 
ports,' accorded to that shipped, and the aroma was conse- 
quently not dissipated, but such a long land journey is ex- 
pensive. We look forward with interest to the construction of 
a trans-Asiatic railway, as it is possible, when such is running, 
that the tea will stand the transit to the West better than 
it does now. 

Brick tea used to be sent overland to Siberia ; but an 
experiment which was attended with success was tried in 
1897, the tea being shipped from Hankow to London and 

2 Y 2 



588 flllNGS CHINESE. 

thence transhipped by steamers to the mouth of the Yenisei 
River, and, after a further water journey, finally reaching the 
Siberian Railway. 

But comparatively few foreigners even in China itself, 
drink anything but the excessively fired teas ; for having 
been used to them from infancy in England and other 
countries, they do not appreciate the lightly fired kinds, 
and often are not even aware of their existence, while 
the Chinese^ believing foreigners like the exported varieties, 
supply them Avith it. Good tea sliould be of a light brown ; 
the water, to pour on the leaves, should be quite boiling 
and only just boiling; and the tea should not be allowed to 
draw for half an hour or more, as the tannin is thus drawn 
out of the leaves. Far better a fi'esh infusion, if required, 
some time after the first drawing, thus following the Chinese 
fashion of making a fresh brew for each- visitor that calls. 

Another excellent plan of the Chinese, with regard to 
tea, is that of sometimes using large cups containing almost 
as much as a large breakfast coffee-cup. Leaves, sufficient 
for a cup of tea, are thrown into the bottom of this, and the 
boiling water poured on. The cup has a lid which covers it 
up for the first few minutes that it is drawing, and the tea 
is handed piping liot and fieslily made to each one; the 
lid also serves to saucer a few sips of it at a time and cool it 
when drinking, while at the bottom of the cup, covered by 
the delicate almost amber-coloured fluid, lie the leaves, un- 
curled by the heat of the water. 

In Swatow and neighbourhood, tiny, toy tea-cups and 
tea-pots are used, the cups containing scarcely more than 
two or three sips of tea. It looks very ridiculous to see 
grown-up people produce a small tray with this lilliputian 
ware on it. The ordinaiy tea-cups used by the Cantonese 
are small enough, but they are much larger than these 
Swatow ones. 

Though green tea, i.e., natural green tea, may be, and 
is, produced, the danger of fermentation on the voyage, and 



TEA. 589 

its unmarketable state, if fired sufficiently to stand the sea 
air, has probably given rise to the practice of coiouring tea 
to cause it to retain its green colour ; there is no necessity 
for doing so with tea for home consumption in China, the 
Chinese are not so foolish as to drink an infusion of Prussian 
blue, for tliis is the substance that is used, mixed with 
gypsum, to colour, or face, the green tea. 

The well-known character of the Chinese for temperance 
has been ascribed to their universal use of tea, and it would 
be well for many in Western lands if, instead of soaking 
themselves with beer, they would copy the example of the 
abstemious Chinese in this respect. 

Different kinds of flowers are used to scent tea, such as 
roses, tuberoses, oranges, jasmines, gardenias, azaleas, as 
well as the olea fragrans ; only the petals are used for the 
purpose. Some choice brands of tea are grown on small 
plots of ground and command almost a fabulous price ; such 
as in some of the gardens near monasteries, owned by the 
priests and attended to by their inferior followers. 

Tea furnishes the second greatest article of commerce in 
China. 

'China has been the fountain-head whence the tea culture has 
spread to other countries.' It is only within recent years that tea 
cultivation has been undertaken in other lands, where it ' is assuming 
large proportions. * ''- The Spanish authorities have tried 

to raise it in the Philippines ; the Dutch in Sumatra, Java, and 
Borneo ; the English in the Straits Settlements ; and the French in 
Cochin China. Nearly all these experiments have been failures, the 
only successes reported being from mountainous countries, where 
there was moisture, szood soil, and not an excess of warmth. The 
Dutch have turned this discovery to account, and now confine their 
efforts to the high mountainous districts with which their colonial 
possessions abound ; good tea has been produced in a number of 
places under these conditions, but the quality has been very inferior 
to the fine growths of Formosa and Foochow.' 

The above quotation does not mention, however, all the 
places where tea is cultivated, or where attempts have been 
made to do so : we may add to the list the well known 
names of Ceylon, India, Assam, Japan, and the lesser known 



500 TliiNGS CHINESE. 

experiments in Johore, the United States, Natal, Fiji, Borneo, 
Servia, Mexico, in the Caucasus (which seems to be a 
failure), and South Carolina : doubtless, in other places as 
well, trial has been made of the cultivation of this useful 
shrub. The troops in Java are supplied with local tea. 

Machineiy would appear to have been largely used of 
late years in the manufacture of Indian teas ; electricity has 
even been yoked in the service of man for the preparation 
of tea ; but the Chinese still retain their old style, and object, 
probably from prejudice, to any innovations, and as long as 
their tea sells they are content, though attempts have been 
made to influence them in the favour of Machinery. 

' Whether China tea, if and when it is prepared by machinery 
will retain its present advantage in the time that it will last in com- 
parison with the short period that Indian and Ceylon teas keep, is 
a question that can only be answered when we have had actual 
experience. It is notorious at present that Indian and Ceylon teas 
go off a few months after arrival in this country (England), whilst 
China tea, as hitherto prepared, could be kept for considerable 
periods of time Avithout showing any decided signs of having "gone 
of. " ' 

To those who like a good article, the ' darker liquor 
which brews out from Indian and Ceylon tea ' with its 
greater pungency will be no recommendation in its favour ; 
for softness of flavour is to be found in China teas ; but cost 
seems to be the point round which the struggle will be 
maintained ; and if China will only listen to the suggestions 
of those who are able to advise her, and send home as good 
an article as she used to ship so largely, the victory may yet 
be hers. 

A trial of preparation of tea by machinery has been made 
by the 'Foochow Tea Improvement Company' and some 
parcels of this tea were put on the London market, and all 
concerned were very sanguine of success but the venture has 
not been able to make its way. 

This experiment has unfortunately proved a failure on 
account, so we are told, of the difficulty of procuring a 
sufficiency of tea to keep the machinery going. 



TEA. 591 

In fact, machine rolling lias been tried in several places — 
two at least, and it is to be hoped that it. or sonietliinir else to 
be discovered will resuscitate the dying China tea trade. One 
of the difficulties in the way will be shown by the following : — 

' It is the custom in this country [this is written at Hankow in 
1897] often to keep the newly picked leaf for a day or so, in hopes of 
obtaining a higher price for it, or it is passed on in bags from one 
district to another where a better sale is looked for. This of course 
entirely spoils it for the London taste of the present day — that is, 
strength and rankness, which is obtained only through immediate 
firing. So long as quotations of taels 50 or so continue for fine teas 
suitable for Russia, it is hardly to be expected a change will be made 
The old fashion pays well enough.' 

That this should be so seems unfortunate as it is stated 
that :— 

' Machine-rolling gives the leaf a more even twist and causes 
less breakage than by hand ; but more important still, the even re- 
gulated presssure of the machine keeps the sap of the green leaf 
working among the rolling leaf, and it is not expressed, as is the 
case with teas prepared by the Chinese method. The use of the 
roller too brings out the small Pekoe leaves with a bright golden 
appearance, whereas the Chinese method of preparation causes the 
leaves to turn black.' '■- * * '- The first small shipment of 

these teas to Melbourne gave a result of some Taels 7 per picul more 
than was obtained by native-made tea selling side by side with it ; 
such teas 'received most favourable notice in the London reports,' 
and 'some " Golden Pekoe " sold at loffi^.' 

The Indian and Ceylon teas are offering a serious com- 
petition to China, the original tea-producing country. The 
trade is declining and some vigorous efforts will have to be 
made to retain what they already possess ; but, unfortunately, 
the Chinese do not appear to be alive to the importance of 
taking steps to hold their own in the world's market against 
the stronger article produced in India, neither have they 
yet learned the wisdom of putting up smaller ' chops ' 
(brands) of tea as is the practice in India, nor have they 
entered into the combinations which the Indian planters 
have formed to push their productions into notice wherever 
a chance of doing so presents itself 

'Americans having acquired a taste for green tea which is now 
chiefly supplied by China, and the crusade to push Indian and Ceylon 
black teas in the United States not having met with the success 



592 THINGS CHINESE. 

anticipated, a few Indian planters have turned their attention to the 
manufacture of LTeen tea for the American market. The first con- 
signment of this tea has now arrived in Calcutta.' 

There is necessity for improvement, at some places in 
China, in the manufacture of tea prepared for the foreign 
market; and some endeavours have been made to meet the 
competition of Indian and other teas, and the heavy costs of 
Chinese taxation, by lessening the costs of production. Both 
Foochovv and Shanghai foreign merchants have recommended 
more careful cultivation and packing. 

'If China were to remove the e.xpoit duty on tea and sweep 
. away the various local burdens that hamper the planter, then indeed 
Chinese tea might be regarded as a formidable competitor with the 
product of India and Ceylon, but so long as it is weighted with a 
burden of taxation that leaves no reasonable margin of profit the tea 
trade of China will continue on the down grade.' 

Were it not for the heavy taxation on the China leaf by 
the Chinese Government, in the way of likin and export duties, 
Chinese tea, when carefully manufactured and cultivated, 
could easily stand the competition of India, Ceylon and other 
countries and ' would be always able to command a good 
market.' 

'"I fear that unless the Chinese can produce stronger and more 
Indian-and Ceylon-like tea, it is only a question of time to see their 
total exclusion from foreign markets," and the only chance for China 
now is, in my opinion, to produce a good, wholesome, sweet article at 
a low price — something that can be mixed with Indian and Ceylon 
teas." 

These remarks, confirmed as they are by all our local [Kiukiang] 
experts, make it appear that two requirements are specially wanted 
to retrieve the fortunes of the China tea trade— improved cultivation 
and manipulation (so as to produce " a good, wholesome article") 
and a reduction in the cost of production. So long, however, as the 
present heavy taxation exists in China all along the route from the 
place of origin to the point of shipment — a taxation amounting to 
about 25 per cent, of the cost, — whilst the teas of other countries 
(India, Ceylon, etc.) are free of duty, neither the improvement of the 
leaf nor the reduction of the original cost can be reckoned as prime 
factors in the question. The wonder is that an article so heavily 
handicapped as China tea is in the matter of duty and taxes should 
still hold a respectable place in the world's markets and still retain 
such a large share of foreign patroage. It would almost seem as if, 
even without any other alteration in the present state of affairs, 



TEA. 



593 



China tea, with a wise removal of, say, half its fiscal burdens, could 
hold its own with its modern rivals, to the immense benefit of the 
Chinese Government and people.' 

' The China tea is undoubtedly the best tea in the world natur- 
ally, but no pains are taken to maintain the stock and the lower 
qualities exported were so mixed with dust and rubbish that much 
harm was done and the way effectually prepared for the competition 
of the Indian leaf.' 

In this connection it may be interesting to give the 
results of the analyses of different teas. 

' The following table, taken from a number of analyses recently 
made by the late Professor Dittmar, shows chearly the effect of 
allowing the water to stand on the tea leaves 5 minutes and 10 
minutes respectively, and the varying amount of theine and tannin 
given off by China, Ceylon, and Indian teas : — 



Five minutes Infusion. 

Theine. Tannifi. 

China 2.58 3.06 

Ceylon 3.15 5.87 

Indian 3.63 6.77 



Ten Minutes Infusion, 

Theine. Tannin. 

China 2.79 3.78 

Ceylon 3.29 7.30 

Indian 3.73 8.09 



From this it will be seen that though Indian tea contains 25, 
per cent, more theine than China tea, it also contains 100 per cent, 
more tannin. Indian teas are much more widely used in England 
than China teas, and the " strong syrupy teas " advertised as of 
good value, and so largely consumed by the working classes, are, 
as a rule, blends of various Indian teas rich in tannin and astringent 
matters.' 

It is thought that if the nearly contiguous towns of 
Lung-sing, Wong-sa-ping and Kia-kow in the turbulent 
province of Hu-nan were only opened to foreign trade the 
English merchants resident at the centres of the Onfa tea 
trade could then compete with better success with the Indian 
tea merchants as the laid down cost on the spot is so low. 
At present these are taken to Hankow. 

The following extracts will show how China tea has 
been ousted out of the English market : — 

' In tea the most observable phenomenon of the twelvemonth 
has been the rapid rise in the imports from Ceylon. It is 48 per 
cent., the increase being gained at the expense alike of Indian tea 
and of Chinese. For the first time Ceylon tea has exceeded China tea 
in quantity. Year by year China tea declines, and it is impossible 
to say where the decadence will stop. To a certain extent, China 

z 2 



594 THINGS CHINESE. 

planters and merchants might arrest the tendency by more care in cul- 
tivation, preparation of the leaf, and attention to European tastes. In 
general, though the best Chinese will please delicate palates, the Indian 
and Ceylon kinds are certain to predominate popularly on account of 
their strength.' ' Times ' 17th August 1892. 

' It is noteworthy that while we took 93 per cent, of our tea 
from China in 1865, and only 2 per cent, from India, and not so 
much as i per cent, from Ceylon, in 1895, we took 46 per cent, from 
India, 32 per cent, from Ceylon, and only 16 per cent, from China. 
The importations from China have steadily dwindled.' 

In 1890 there were 101,000,000 lbs. tea imported from 
India into Great Britain, 74,000,000 from China, and over 
42,000,000 from Ceylon, Ceylon was expected to export 
70,000,000 lbs. of tea in 1892; there being now 230,000 acres 
of land planted with tea in that Colony, an increase of nearly 
40,000 acres during two years. Japan and China still retain 
the two largest markets for tea, which are those of America 
and Australia. The trade in tea with Russia is increasing. 

In four months, in 1894 the consumption of Indian tea 
in England had increased by about 11,000,000 lbs., and that 
of China tea had decreased 5,000,000, 

Amoy, 27 years ago, exported as much as 65,800 piculs 
last year, 1898, the amount was 10,528 piculs, for the tea 
'trade of Amoy is going down hill rapidly. *At one time 
the Amoy teas were excellent and tea districts corresponding- 
ly prosperous ;' but both quality and quantity fell off. It is 
stated that 

* The export and likin duty are factors which militate against 
the hopes of the most sanguine. Is is now too late to propose reme- 
dial measures which would resuscitate the already moribund leaf, 
formerly the leading article of export ' from Amoy. 

As an illustration of how the decline in the tea trade has 
affected the Chinese cultivator, the following statement in the 
report on Amoy in the Customs' Annual Returns for 1896 is 
not devoid of interest : 

'The annual value of the trade has fallen from Hk Taels 
2,000,000 a quarter of a century ago to less than Hk Taels 100,000 
to-day, and the cultivator, whose plantation formerly supplied him 
with a comfortable income, is now compelled to plant rows of sweet 
potatoes between the tea bushes to keep body and soul together.' 



t£:A. 595 

To what a low state the tea trade in China has arrived 
the report by the Commissioner of Customs for Amoy shows. 
He thus writes of 1897 : — 

' In all probability this trade report will be the last in which 
reference will be made to Amoy tea as an important factor in our 
trade. 25 years ago. 65,800 piculs were exported ; this year the total 
is 12,127 piculs. '■■' * * * The extinction of the Amoy tea 

trade has been predicted in previous trade reports. The export and 
likin duty are factors which militate against the hopes of the most 
sanguine. It is now too late to propose remedial measures which 
would resuscitate the already moribund leaf, formerly the leading article 
of export. The native growers are not entirely free from blame ; of 
late years they have been content to produce any article which would 
sell, but the new United States law establishing standards has prac- 
tically shut out the article as now produced.' 

The following is from the Report on the Foreign Trade 
of China for the year 1897, by P. E. Taylor, of the I. M. 
Customs' Service : — 

' I am one of those who believe in the possibility of reviving 
this trade. It may not be generally known that the most delicate 
and highly prized teas from India and Ceylon are grown on the 
higher altitudes and are produced from plants of Chinese origin. 
The bulk of the tea exported from India comes from the plains, and 
is the product of the indigenous plant which grows as a forest tree in 
Manipur — attaining in its wild state, a height of 30 feet— and which 
will not flourish except at low elevations. The teas made from these 
plants yield a strong liquor and they are consequently economical in 
use ; but they are certainly unwholesome, and they lack altogethef 
the delicious aroma of the teas grown at higher altitutes from Chinese 
plants. They can be placed on the market at low prices because the 
tea estates are so large that the quantity of leaf to be dealt with 
makes the use of machinery profitable and even necessary. The 
essential difference between the process of manufacture in India and 
Ceylon and in China is that the teas are packed within 24 hours of 
the leaves having been plucked which would seem to be impossible 
in this country under present conditions. It has been stated recently 
that the peculiar excellence of fine China teas would be ruined by the 
adoption of Indian methods. This may be true of fancy teas for 
exhibition, but is certainly not true if applied to ordinary fine teas. 
Not being an expert, my opinion is of little value, but I may be 
permitted to say that I have been unable to procure in China, tea of 
such delightful fragrance and digestibility as some I have tasted from 
Darjeeling and the Kangra Valley — grown from Chinese plants but 
manufactured by machinery. I believe that the experiment com- 
menced at Foochow, and shortly to be imitated at Hankow, will if 
sufficient leaf can be procured close to the factory, eventually result in 
a success which will encourage the adoption of similar methods in 
other centres of the tea industry and will regain for this important 
trade a large measure of its former prosperity.' 

2 z 2 



596 THINGS CHINESE. 

The Foochow experiment, as we have already said, has 
been a failure. 

The following extracts show pretty much how matters 
stand at present : — 

' Experts in tea are agreed that the desiderata to retrieve the 
fortunes of the China tea trade, are improved cultivation and 
manipulation, and a reduction in the cost of production.' 

' If China were to remove the export duty on tea and sweep 
away the various local burdens that hamper the planter, then indeed 
Chinese tea might be regarded as a formidable competitor with the 
product of India and Ceylon, but so long as it is weighted with a 
burden of taxation that leaves no reasonable margin of profit the tea 
trade of China will continue on the down grade.' 

' The 25 per cent, mentioned by Mr. Hughes (page 592) as the 
amount of taxation to which Kiukiang tea is subjected is somewhat 
less than the amount given by conpetent authorities at other ports. 
Mr. Brenan, in the Canton Consular Report for 1897, placed the figure 
at 35 per cent., while Mr. Cass, of Amoy, in a review of the tea trade 
supplied by him to the Consul and incorporated in the 1896 report, 
said the reason for the decline was not far to seek : the entire corp 
realised $136,000, while the lekin paid amounted to $20,000 and the 
export duty to $35,000, or a total of $55,000, considerably more than 
one-third of the value of the tea. The result is that at Amoy the tea 
trade has practically ceased to exist.' 

Some idea of the immense consumption of tea in the 
world, and the quantities that the most successful tea-producing 
countries might put on the market may be gathered from the 
calculation that the whole number of cups of tea taken a day 
in the United Kingdom ' will probably be not less on the 
average than 100,000,000.' The British people get through 
184,000,000 lbs. per annum, being at the rate of 5 lbs. per 
head per annum. (In England the consumption of tea is 
rapidly increasing and that of coffee diminishing). The 
Dutch are the greatest tea and coffee drinkers, the quantity 
consumed by each being 240 ozs., or 15 lbs., a year. We are 
unable to say how much of this is tea and how much coffee. 
*The French only consume half an ounce in the same period, 
whilst the Australians, the greatest tea drinkers in the world, 
consume 7^ lbs. of tea per head every year.' Even the Maoris 
drink tea; their consumption is very small though, not having 
been more than 1 lb. per head per annum in 1889. It was 



TELEGRAPHS, ^91 

stated in 1892 that the Kamchatkans are beginning to use 
tea. 'The largest annual consumption [of tea] per head is 
in Western Australia at 10.701b.; Great Britain figures at 
4.70; the United States at 1.40; [there were 83,494,956 lbs. of 
tea imported into the United States in 1890, an increase over 
the previous decade, and amounting to 1^ lbs. for each 
inhabitant] ; Germany stands at .07, and France at .03; ' the 
' continental nations, even including Russia, come a long 
way behind the United Kingdom.' The large consumption 
of wine in France and Germany unfortunately retards the 
more healthy consumption of tea. It is calculated that 
500,000,000 people drink Chinese and Indian tea. 

TELEGRAPHS.— "The first telegraph line in China was 
opened in 1872 and of recent years the Chinese Government 
finding the necessity by the Franco-Chinese war of having 
rapid communication with the centres of its numerous pro- 
vinces, has taken up the electric telegraph. 

' " The telegraph is the only institution of modern science which 
has obtained any considerable foothold in China," say Messrs. Fearon 
and Allen in an article in The Engineerijig Magazine, " Peking 
is connected by wire with Tientsin and with Manchurian points 
up to the Russian frontier, whence connection is continued by 
Russian Siberian lines to Europe. The capital is also connected 
with all the treaty ports, and principal cities in China proper, and 
these again with each other. Canton has connection also through 
Yunnan with Burma. China learned the value of the telegraph in 
the war with France, and it has long since been admitted to have 
become indispensable. The telegraph, however, is under imperial 
control, and there is probably little opportunity for its extension as a 
private enterprise. Chinese writing being not alphabetic, but syllabic, 
and there being as many characters as there are words in use, the 
telegraphic messages are sent in a number cypher. For transcrib- 
ing messages received, a double-ended type is used; on one end is the 
character, and on the other the corresponding number. When a 
message is received, it is set up by the numbers, and then printed 
from the reverse, or character, end." ' 

Speaking in a general way, the system may be described 
as consisting, in the main, of a line, starting from the 
northern part of China's colonial possessions, lying to the 
north of China proper, and running down not far from the 
coast to the south ; in the southern portion there is another 
line as well, forming a loop futher inland ; while from this 



^9^ THINGS CHIN^S£!. 

northern and southern main line spring three large lines 
running in a westerly direction, the northernmost one 
through the northern provinces, the southern one through 
the southern provinces, and a central one along the 
Yangtsz valley. Besides these grand lines there are short 
branch lines connecting different places with the main lines. 
By means of all these, telegraphic communication is main- 
tained with every province. The province of Hunan even 
having it now, the people of the frontier town of Lichow 
rose en masse in 1891 to prevent its introduction into their 
province, but five years later the introduction of it excited no 
opposition. 

Extensions are being still made every little while to 
the system and it is being rapidly extended over the empire. 

The work of putting up the lines in China was intrusted 
to the Danish Great Northern Telegraph Company. Compared 
with the numerous important centres of trade the stations 
are but few in number ; and the rate for messages is not 
sufficiently low to bring them within the reach of the 
multitudes that avail themselves of such conveniences in the 
West. Looked at from a foreign point of view, it is un- 
satisfactory to find that these native lines are not available to 
Europeans if a riot occurs. The following was written about 
Chinese telegraphs in 1892 and is still of interest though the 
lines have extended considerably since : — 

' The Chinese telegraph system already comprises about 42,000 
li [say 14,000 miles] of line, carrying 58,000 li of wire ; stations have 
been established in 171 different towns ; and Formosa, the Pescadores, 
and Hainan have been connected by submarine cable with the 
mainland. From Hehlungkiang to Hainan and from Corea to the 
Burma frontier of Yiinnan, the Chinese telegraph lines stretch over 
greater distances than from Norway to Sicily and from Lisbon to 
the Caucasus.' 

Amongst the wonders of the Chinese telegraphs may be 
mentioned the line across the Gobi desert, 3,000 miles long. 

Book Tdcommended. — A very short account is given in ' Peeps into 
China' by Eev. Gilbert Eeid, M.A., Chap. 33, of the introduction and 
extension of the telegraph in China. 



TENURE OF LAND. 599 

TENURE OF LAND.—kW land is held direct from 
the crown in China, there is no allodial property ; and no 
law of entail. As has been so often stated, the family being 
the unit of society in China, it is natural to find that a lar^-e 
amount of land is held by the family or by the clan, though 
individuals as well often invest their savings in the South of 
China in paddy fields. 

' The conditions of common tenure are the payment of an annual 
tax, the fee for alienation with a money composition for personal 
service to the government, a charge generally incorporated into the 
direct tax as a kind of scutage.' 

The land tax varies from 1^ to 10 cents a mao, or Chinese 
acre, which is equivalent to from 10 to QQ cents an acre, 
the amount being dependent on ' the quality of the land and 
the difiiculty of tillage ' its fertility, situation, or the use to 
which it is put. Reckoning this tax at an average of 25 
cents an acre the income to the government from this source 
ought to be about $150,000,000, were it all to go into the 
Imperial cofi'ers without paying tribute to the host of rapa- 
cious underlings, clerks, and constables, and the hundred and 
one people who all put in for a share of the plunder. 

" As the exactions for alienation on sale of lands are high 
amounting to as mnch as one-third of the sale price sometimes, the 
people accept white deeds from each other as proofs of ownership and 
responsibility for taxes. As many as twenty or thirty such deeds of 
sae occasionally accompany the orignial hung k'aij without which 
they are suspicious, if not valueless. In order to keep the knowledge 
of the alienations of land in government offices, so that the taxes can 
be assured, it is customary to furnish a k\ii itiei, or " deed-end," 
containing a note of the terms of sale and amount of tax liable on the 
property. There is no other proof of ownership required ; and the 
simplicity and efficiency of this mode of transfer offer a strikin g 
contrast to the cumbrous rules enforced in western Kingdoms." 

The eldest son inherits his father's property, but, from 
the customs of the people, it appears more as if it devolved 
upon him as a trust administered by him for the good of the 
family, for the whole family are allowed to reside on and live 
upon the property, generation after generation, if they so 
choose, or an 'amicable composition can be made.' 



600 THINGS CHINESE. 

A mortgagee enters into possession of the property and 
' makes himself responsible for the payment of the taxes' ; 
the land may be redeemed at any time on the payment of 
the sum advanced, if the payment he made within thirty 
years. 

The Chinese government are liberal in their treatment 
of those who reclaim waste hillsides, and poor soil ; or who 
first cultivate newly formed alluvial strips of land : in the 
former cases sufficient time is allowed for the cultivator to 
recoup himself for the outlay incurred before his land is 
assessed ; and in the latter case the authorities have to be 
informed. 

' All buildings pay a ground rent to the Government, but no data 
are available for comparing this tax with that levied in western cities. 
The Government furnishes the owner of the ground with a kimg k'ai, 
or " red deed " in testimony of his right to occupancy, which puts 
him in possession as long as he pays the taxes [ground rent]. There 
is a record office in the local magistracy of such documents ' 

Books recommend ed. — Williams's ' Middle Kingdom,' Land and Land- 
tax. Transactions N. C. Br. R. A. S. 1848, Vol. I, Article by T. T. Meadows. 

THEATRE.— ThesLtxicsl exhibitions in China are often 
connected with religion, as, in the mediaeval times in the 
West, mystery plays were, for in China they are often held 
in honour of a god's birthday. Subscriptions in these 
cases are obtained from the residents of the locality and 
a large stage of bamboo and matting covered in, is put up. 
No nails are used in its construction, but the bamboos are 
securely tied together with strips of rattan. The putting up 
of matsheds is a trade by itself ; they are quickly run up, 
a few days' time suffices for erecting one large enough for 
holding two thousand people. They are taken down even 
quicker, as sharp hook-knives cut through the rattan strips, 
and these latter are the only materials which cannot be 
used again, the same bamboo poles and oblongs of matted 
leaves bound together, doing duty scores, if not hundreds, of 
times. One large shed may serve for the performers, while 
smaller ones accommodate those who pay for seats ; the pit 
is the paved square, and standing room is all that the 



THEATRE. 601 

rabble, who are packed as thick as herrings in a barrel, are 
allowed. 

Players stroll in companies from place to place, open 
to engagements as above, or are hired by wealthy families 
to perform their plays in their private dwellings, where all 
the inconveniences of the female members of the family 
appearing in public are avoided. In Hongkong there are 
three substantial buldings used for native theatres, and the 
Chinese appear to be copying this example at Canton and 
elsewhere. 

What would we think in the West of performances 
lasting three days instead of three hours, and only rests for 
sleeping and eating ? Smoking and refreshments are allowed 
in the theatre itself, and the splitting and munching of dried 
melon seeds which is carried on must be immense, while 
play follows play without any interval. 

The stage is simplicity itself, with two entrances from 
the back where the ' green-room ' is placed ; and a few 
tables, chairs, and stools, are about all that are used, and 
they do duty for any and every thing. The writer saw a 
frail structure, composed of tables and chairs piled up in the 
middle of the stage, used to represent lofty crags and 
precipitous mountains, over which the heroine of the play, 
accompanied and assisted by a trusty family retainer, clam- 
bered up, clutching imaginary projecting points, trees, 
bushes, or grass, to help her in her dangerous climb. Some 
of the actors display considerable talent, most realistic effects 
being produced at times. 

The assistants come in and remove different articles 
when done with, or bring them as required, going out and in 
among the actors with perfect nonchalance, as no curtain 
falls between the different acts. Considerable force of 
imagination is required to add all the accessories so vividly 
pictured on the modern stage in the West ; but perhaps their 
absence is not an entire defect, as more attention can be 
bestowed, without their distraction, on the acting itself. 

3 A 



(502 THINGS CHINESE. 

Young men dressed as women, take the female parts, and 
the others are so represented as to be known at once, the 
villain, for instance, being painted with a white nose. 

Historical plays are often performed, the dressis being 
those of the Chinese when under native rule, between two 
and three centuries ago, and most gorgeous they are, making 
up for all the lack of scenic effect ; robes of rich hues 
glittering with gold ; long feathers, several feet in length, 
falling in graceful curves from the caps of the performers, 
and swaying with every motion of the actors. The 
spectacular effect of all this glitter and sheen proves a 
strange contrast to the poverty of the building and the bare 
appearance of the stage. Marches past of soldiers ; the 
exaggerated stride of the hero ; the prancing of the warriors 
as they enter into mimic contests where lunges and feints, 
a la Chinois, are indulged in to an extravagant extent ; all 
present a co7j,p d'oeil, weird and fantasic, grotesque at times, 
but so full of life and vigour that for some time one enjoys 
the kaleidoscopic scene to be witnessed nowhere else in the 
world : and were it not for the clash of the cymbals which 
emphasise different passages, the scrapings of the fiddles, and 
the indescribable effect of the Chinese music, added to the 
heat of the crowded building and the disagreeable odour 
from the perspiring and unwashed masses, one would enjoy 
it more, but a headache is the Westerner's reward for the 
patient sitting out of a Chinese play. 

* The efforts of certain actors are worthy of the highest com- 
mendation from the naturalness of their actions and the vivid 
portrayal of the incidents of the play. There is, however, much of 
conventionality reminding one of the Italian opera among us.' ' The 
performances' are ' largely of the character of pantomime and more 
largely perhaps * * opera.' 

Though we have particularised the historic play, it 
must not be supposed that the ' Brethren of the Pear 
Orchard,' as Thespians are called in China, confine their 
attention to that branch of the histrionic art. Plays of 
various kinds, comedies, tragedies, and farces, all find 
acceptance from a Chinese audience. 



THEATRE, 603 

* While it is true that the Chinese themselves make no distinction 
between comedy and tragedy, a translator from their language is still 
at liberty to apply these terms, according to the serious and dignified, 
or comic and familiar character, of the composition which he selects.' 
Sir John Davis, from whom we quote, says further, of a tragedy which 
he translated from Chinese into English :— ' In the unity of the plot, 
the dignity of the personages, the grandeur and importance of the 
events, the strict award of what is called poetical justice— nay, in the 
division into five principal portions or acts, it might satisfy the most 
fastidious and strait-laced of the old European critics. Love and war, 
too, constitute its whole action, and the language of the imperial lover 
is frequently passionate to a degree one is not prepared for in such a 
country as China.' 

'The stage, and everything pertaining to it, enjoys a lower 
estimation than in any part of Europe.' It is not considered proper 
for respectable Chinese ladies to go frequently to the theatre. ' The 
Chinese cannot strictly be said to possess dramatic poetry.' ' No 
Shakespeare has "■' yet arisen in China ; no analyst of motives 

either amongst novelists or playwrights.' ' The dialogue of their 
stage pieces is composed in ordinary prose; while the principal 
performer now and than chaunts forth, in unison with music, a 
species of song or "vaudeville " ; and the name of the tune or air is 
always inserted at the top of the passage to be sung.' ' A consider- 
able portion of the plays of the Chinese consists of a sort of irregular 
verse, which is sung or chanted with music. This is often very 
obscure in its import ; and as, according to the Chinese themselves, 
the gratification of the ear is its main object, sense itself appears 
sometimes to be neglected for the sake of a pleasing sound.' * The 
Chinese are enthusiastic theatre-goers, and sit for hours enthralled by 
the performance, bereft as it necessarily is of much of the scenic 
effects of the Western stage.' 

' The Chinese drama •■' * ** was marked out into three 
distinct epochs — The T'ang Dynasty (720 — 905 A.D.), the Sung 
Dynasty (720 — 1119 A.D.), the Kin and Yuen Dynasty (1123 — 1341 
A.D.)' 

' The character of the plays represented was at first religious, but 
subsequenty was more devoted to historical subjects, and also repre- 
sented the occupations of the people in times of peace as well as the 
exploits of their heroes in war.' 

' The Chinese drama sprang up no earlier than the time of 
the caliphate and subsequent ages. The Greek drama was already 
transplanted and had grown luxuriantly in India. The Moham- 
medans naturally derived pure ideas from it in their religious 
shows, and the miracle-plays of Europe show how the same principle of 
dramatic imitation was working there also. So it was in China. 
The whole idea of the Chinese play is Greek. The mask, the chorus, 
the music, the colloquy, the scene and the act, are Greek. The 
difference between Chinese plays, and those of Terence and Plautus 
is simply that the Roman dramatists translated a good deal. The 
Chinese took the idea and worked up the play from their own history 

a A 2 



604 THINGS CHINESE. 

and their own social life. The Chinese drama is based on music 
just as the Greek play was, and the whole conception of the play is 
foreign while the details and the language are Chinese. But for the 
arrival of Western musicians in the Sung and Yuen dynasties, 
pleasing the people's ear with more lively and stirring strains than 
they had ever heard in the old music of China, the modern dramatic 
music would not have been developed. The spread of education 
and the love of poetry in the T'ang dynasty constituted a training 
for dramatic authorship. The Sung dynasty iniluence in this direction 
is vouched for by Su Tung-po. After such men had appeared it was 
easy for the drama and romance to be originated, but it was the 
increasing inflow of foreign actors and musicians all through the 
age of the Golden Tartors which gave direction and shape to the 
new power. Every attempt to explain the Chinese drama as purely 
native must therefore fail.' 

The social position the actor holds in China is low ; he 
is considered on a par with the barber and debarred from 
entering the examinations ; and this, though the Chinese 
play has a moral tendency, the villain getting his deserts and 
the virtuous hero and heroine coming off with flying colours. 

Boohs recommended. — -Besides the notices of the theatre in text 
books such as William's Middle Kiugdom,' there are some very interesting 
pages ou the subject in Professor Douglas's ' Chinese Stories, Introduction, 
pp. XXIII-XXXVI. ' The Chinese Drama,' by W. Stanton, contains an 
interesting account of theatrical matters in China, as well as three plays 
and two poems. 

TIGERS. — In the earlier days of European residence 
in the East, and even until a recent date, most foreigners 
were very sceptical of the tiger stories of the Chinese ; but 
of recent years it has been well established as a fact that in 
some parts of China the tiger is a common beast of prey 
and a source of constant danger, especially to the juvenile 
members of the community. There have been numerous 
cases of children being sized and carried off from the very 
doors of their homes, nor has the abduction of a child from 
the very gates of a city been unknown. The tiger appears 
to be widely spread over the empire, but it is mostly found 
in the provinces of Fukien, Kiangsi, Kwongtung, and 
Kwongsi. They even come, at times, within what is now the 
newly acquired territory ou the mainland opposite Hongkong. 
They frequent, amongst other spots, the neighbourhood of 
Swatow, Amoy, and Foochow, and a few days' journey from 
Canton up the North, East, or West Rivers would bring 



TIGERS. 605 

one to tiger districts. Tigers are also found in Manchuria. 
One foreign resident ' in Amoy has shot 19 tigers to his own 
rifle and has been present at the death of 40.' Foreign sports- 
men, however, with but few exceptions, have not gone tiger 
shooting. The average length of those that have fallen to their 
guns has been for males 9 feet and females 8 feet. ' Immensely 
long tigers are not always proportionately large ; they are 
mostly thin and low animals ; the heaviest and most muscular 
tigers average about 9 feet G inches. The longest tiger shot 
in India measured 12 ft. 2 in. * * * la China there are 
several good records; one of 10 ft. 6 in., and another of 
11 ft. 2 in.' The writer, from whom we quote above, states 
that he has measured tanned skins in Shanghai and found 
some of them as long as 12 ft. 9 in. 'and they were not 
"' faked " in any way.' The tiger is supposed to attain 
maturity in the course of four years and only those full 
groAvn could be of large size. 

As compared with his India brother, the Chinese tiger — 
being a very well fed animal which generally inhabits the 
hills, while the Indian tiger being a jungle animal has his 
hair and skin much damaged by friction against the under- 
growth — is better marked and the skin naturally commands 
a higher price in Europe, for while a • full grown Chinese 
tiger will fetch a price of £100 in some of the large zoo- 
logical gardens in Europe ' the highest amount given for 
an Indian tiger being £70. The Chinese tiger is said not 
to be so aggressive as the Indian tiger though its ferocity 
' when aroused and put to bay ' is equal : ' the tiger livino- 
in the jungle [the Indian] has less supply of food and will 
attack more instantaneously and with less provocation.' The 
Chinese dig a pit and cover it with poles or branches, the 
tiger's weight carries him through, and he is despatched often 
by a red hot iron being run down his throat, though he often 
escapes from these pits. 

The * white tiger ' is an important element in the 
pseudo-science of fung-shui : it represents one of the ' two 
supposed currents running through the earth/ the other 



606 THtms CittNESE. 

being the 'green dragon.' These are believed to be 
situated on the right and left respectively of propitious sites 
and graves. ' A skilful observer can detect and describe 
them, with the help of the [geomantic] compass, direction 
of the water courses, shapes of the male and female ground, 
and their proportions, colour of the soil, and the permuta- 
tions of the elements.' 

Boohs recommended. — Zool. Soc. Proc. 1870, p. 626. Also see H.K 
Weekly Press for 27th Maj-, 1896. Also see article in this book on 
Geomancy. 

TIME. — Time — but what idea has a Chinaman of time? 
Time does not enter into the essence of his ordinary 
conceptions of a day, or, at all events, the idea is so very 
vague that the conception of it seems but an inchoate one. 
At the Treaty Ports and in their neighbourhood, as well as at 
Hongkong and Macao, clocks are found in every shop and 
watches abound, but in many places there is no standard of 
correct time, and, in places where there is, it is ignored 
extensively. Life is not such a mad rush as with us in our 
feverish pursuit of wealth, a livelihood, or learning. Fix a 
time for an engagement with a Chinese, and he comes in 
half an hour late, or even two or three hours after, occasionally 
a few days later than the day fixed upon, Avith no idea 
that he has done anything out of the way. Hire a coolie or a 
street vehicle or a boat, and what the man employed bases 
his calculation on, as to payment, is more the distance 
traversed than the time spent over it ; and, compared with 
his fraternity in the West, he patiently waits your return, 
while the minutes and hours that fly are almost next to 
nothing to him. This disregard of time is seen in the 
language, where vagueness takes the place of our precision. 
When a man says *to-raorrow' he does not necessarily mean 
the next day, but some indefinite time in the future which 
sometimes never comes, like St. Patrick's * to-morrow' for 
the saint when exterminating the snakes in Ireland put the 
last one in a box, and flung it to the bottom of a lake 
promising to let it out * to-morrow/ and as each new day 



TIME. 607 

began, the snake asked to be let out, but the saint always 
replied that this was to-day and not to-morrow. 

The Chinese employ two methods in reckoning time : 
one, the cycle of sixty years (See Article on Cycle) ; but this 
way of counting time is an uncertain one, for, unless it is 
distinctly stated, one is at a loss to know whether, say, a 
certain book was copied or printed some score or two years 
ago, or fourscore or more years ago. Another better method, 
one of the most common — and one used by us to a 
small extent, notably in the Headings of Acts of 
Parliament — is that of employing the years of the 
reign ; but with the Chinese it is not the sovereign's name 
that is used, that is too sacred to be so debased, but some 
high-sounding combination of words is employed and this 
designates the reign, or a part of it, as has often happened 
in ancient Chinese history, when the reign-name was changed 
several times in the lifetime of one monarch. The present 
occupant of the throne has had selected for him for his 
' year-style ' the words Kwong-sui, which may be rendered 
into English as ' Illustrious Succession ' ; so this year, which 
we date from the greatest event that earth has ever seen, as 
A.D. 1899, is known to the Chinese as parts of the Mb-sut and 
Ke'i-hoi years of the cycle and parts of the 24th and 25th 
years of the 'Illustrious Succession' period. The Chinese 
year is a lunar one ' but its commencement is regulated by 
the sun.' To those who are astronomically inclined it may be 
interesting to know that 'New Year falls on the first new 
moon after the sun enters Aquarius, which makes it come 
not before January 21st nor after February 19th.' In 1899 
it has happened on the 10th of February. It is therefore 
unlike the Mohammedan year which now has its new year ia 
summer and now in winter ; the Chinese feasts are almost as 
certain as our European movable ones, for by the addition of 
an intercalary month every three years or so the differences 
are roughly adjusted ; this extra month is, however, not the 
thirteenth and added on at the end of the year, but it is inserted 
at different times in different years, and takes its name from 



608 THINGS CHINESE. 

the month it immediately follows, for instance one year it 
may be the intercalary second month, on another occasion 
it may be the intercalary seventh month, and so on. The 
Quakers would not be a singular people in China as far as 
their nomenclature of time was concerned ; for instead (in 
common parlance) of the months having names as we, who 
are outside the pale of Quakerism in the West, employ, the 
Chinese know them as the first, the second, the third months, 
and so on. The close connection between the month and the 
moon is more noticeable in Chinese even than with us, for 
the same word does duty for both. Again, the indefiniteness 
of the Chinese as regards time is seen in the days, for though 
they are known as the first, second, &c., yet they are further 
divided into three decades as regards their position in the 
month, so a Chinese can fix a matter as having occurred in 
the first decade, or the second, or the third, as the case may 
be, and delight his unprecise nature by a margin of ten days. 

There is no week, amongst the Chinese, in our accep- 
tation of the term, but multitudes of them have learned 
what a week is, and have terms to express it and its days, 
and it is well known wherever foreigners have stayed or 
travelled much. 

The Chinese hour is twice the length of ours, but again, 
in the neighbourhood of the Treaty Ports, where clocks and 
watches are common, the more convenient foreign system, as 
shown by the faces of those important and useful horological 
instruments, is largely used and is probably increasing in 
use every year; and en passant we may say that it is in this 
way that progress is accomplished in China, by the adoption 
of some foreign invention Avhich gradually extends from the 
sphere of foreign influence or introduction further into the 
country. There is no rapid, M'holesale sweeping away of 
former things, and the importation, en bloc, of new ideas, as 
has frequently happened with Japan — in her case often to 
be followed by a revulsion, or the acceptance of something 
else, and a discarding of the former inventions adopted so 



TOBACCO AND PIPES. r,09 

hastily. China's progress, being slower, is steadier, and will 
be none the less sure in the long run. 

The Chinese watch at night is like the Western dog 
watch, only two hours in length. The first watch lasts from 
7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and is shown by one beat on the revenue 
cutter's drum or one blow on the street-watchman's hollow 
bamboo tube; the second watch is from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. 
and is signalled by two beats, &c. ; the third, fourth, and fifth 
are of equal duration, and shown in a corresponding manner. 
Each of these watches is divided into five lesser divisions, 
which are distinguished on the revenue cutters by their 
numbers from one to five strokes on a small gong, the 
stroke on the gong immediately following the drum beat. 
The watch is set and called ofi" both afloat and ashore by a 
tattoo on the drum or bamboo, commencing with slow and 
measured beat, gradually increasing in time until it ends in 
a regular rattle ; this is repeated several times. 

The peculiar phrases that one comes across used by the 

common people for the expression of short periods of time 

strike one as very odd. The following are examples of such 

phrases : — 

The time it would take to drink a cup of tea. 

The time it would take to drink a cup of hot tea. 

The time it would take to eat a meal. 

The time it would take to eat a bowl of rice. 

The time it would take to smoke a cigarette. 

The time it would take for an incense-stick to burn. 

TOBACCO AND PIPES. —Tobacco was introduced 
into China from Luzon about A.D. 1530 ''and smokinsr 
spread among all classes of the people, and both sexes, with 
incredible rapidity.' Decrees were issued against its use by 
some of the Ming dynasty rulers, but proved as ineffectual as 
those of James I. against it in England, for everyone smokes 
in China. There are two kinds of pipe in use, the dry pipe, 
and the water-pipe : the latter is a copy of the Indian 
hookah ; it consists of a receptacle for the water into which a 
tube-like piece, about the size of a small finger, is inserted ; 
the upper end of this tube contains a small cavity into which 

3 B 



610 TIITNGS CHINESE. 

the tobacco Is put. The smoke is inhaled through the water 
up the pipe part, which is a tube about a foot long gradually 
narrowing and bending over at the mouth-piece. These pipes 
are made of copper and argentan (an alloy of copper, zinc, 
nickel, iron, and sometimes a little silver) and are used by 
ladies and gentlemen. The common coolies have a primitive 
style of water-pipe which consists of a length of bamboo 
about the size of a man's arm, and, part of the way up, a 
little tube of bamboo, the size of a finger, for the tobacco. 

The other pipes are often made of bamboo, as far as 
the stems are concerned, and vary in length from a few feet 
to a few inches, though short pipes are not very common. 
The bowls, of metal, are small, holding scarcely more than 
a thimbleful of tobacco ; a few whiffs exhaust them ; and 
with the gentleman or lady a servant is ready who steps up, 
rakes the pipe, empties out the ashes, refills it, sticks it into 
the mouth of his master or mistress, and lights it with a 
paper spill. 

The tobacco is prepared for smoking by drying the 
leaves and cutting them into shreds ; it is milder than that 
used in the West, and is of different preparations. It is 
used in several ways, such as in pipes, in paper cigarettes, 
and in snuff", but not in cigars : when used as snuff", it is put 
into snuff"-bottles, over the purchase of which the man of 
means spends money lavishly, and the patient toiler also 
lavishly spends weeks, or sometimes even months, in the 
production of one. They are often cut out of ' stone, amber, 
agate, and other rare minerals, with most exquisite taste.' 
They are carved at times like cameos ; a little bone spoon 
is attached to the stopper, and a pinch of snuff is taken out 
by it and put on the thumb-nail, from which it is drawn up 
into the nose. 

Considerable quantities of tobacco are exported to the 
East Indian Islands ; and an attempt was made to introduce 
it on the western markets. ' Japanese tobacco is already 
largely consumed in Europe, but the bulk of it goes to 



TOBACCO AND PIPES. 611 

Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, where, with the addition 
of the Sumatra or Havana leaf, it is made into cigars.' 

On the other hand the Chinese have developed a liking 
for Manila cigars, and many of them may be seen smoking 
them. The street coolies in Hongkong, whose stock of cash 
is too small to invest in such luxuries, keep an eye open for 
the discarded ends tossed away by the extravagant foreigner 
and, picking them up, enjoy a few whiffs. Nor is the 
manufacture of these cigar ends into new cigars unknown 
to the ingenious Chinaman. 

It is curious to notice how very similar pipes that were 
used in England on the first introduction of tobacco smoking 
are to the small Chinese pipes in use in China at present. 
If the general opinion that the Portuguese spread the know- 
ledge of tobacco smoking into Asia soon after its introduction 
be accepted (the Chinese, it is stated, learned it from the 
Philippine Islands) then this similarity in the pipes is easily 
accounted for. A writer in Macmillan's Maorazine for Ausjust, 
1896, throws out the suggestion that, as which so many other 
things, the Chinese were the introducers of tobacco smoking 
into America and the west. If this be true, the similarity in 
pipes is also accounted for. 

In this connection it may be interesting to note the 
following account of tobacco cultivation in the Szchuan 
Province as reported on by Mr. Smithers, the United States 
Consul at Chung King. 

' The tobacco plant is grown all over the province of Szechuan, 
but more abundantly in the districts of Pe-shan Hsien, which is about 
150 li (60 miles) northeast of this city, and Kin-t'ang Hsien, about 
100 li (40 miles) east of Chengtu, the provincial capital. 

The plant grows to the height of about 2j to 3 ft. from the 
ground, and the usual time for planting the seed is during the tenth 
or eleventh moon (November or December). The method, before 
putting the seed into the ground, is to sift out a quantity of soil and 
manure it. When dry, the seed is wrapped with this soil and put 
into the ground at intervals of a foot and a half. The soil must not 
be rich, and ground where cereals have not been already planted is 
generally chosen. 

3 B 2 



612 THINGS CHINESE. 

During the year, there are three crops — the first is cut six months 
after it has been planted, the second twenty days afterwards, and 
the third crop twenty days after the second crop. 

So soon as it is cut, it is hung up to dry for about a fortnight, 
in a sheltered place with a good draft, so that it may dry quickly. 
When ready for sale, it is done up in bundles weighing 70 to 80 
catties (39.3 to 106.6 pounds) a piece. 

The Kin-t'ang tobacco leaf receives a little more care. After it 
is dried, it is put into a press, to enable some of the juice to be pressed 
out and the leaf made much milder than the other leaves that are 
sold in the market. It is done up in bundles of 40 to 50 catties 
(53.3 to 66.6. pounds) each. The seed is sown under shelter. When 
the leaves are ready, they are picked and exposed to the dew for 
several nights ; they are then dipped in a dye and hung up to dry 
again before being taken to the markets for sale.' 

The article goes on to say that a Chinese is making 
cigars, but they are not equal to Manila cigars ; but with 
proper curing they would be probably improved. The 
Chinese in that neighbourhood are said to take off a piece 
of leaf, roll it into a sort of cheroot, and smoke it in their 
pipes, consisting of a small brass bowl and long bamboo or 
cane stem. 

' Tobacco leaf was shipped away [from Shanghai in 1 898] 
to the extent of 210,000 piculs, of which 94 per cent, went 
to Japan, or say, 197,000 piculs, as against 13,000 piculs in 
1897.' 

TOMBS. — A'^book itself might be written on the sub- 
ject of tombs in China, so important are they considered in 
this land of anomalies ; they are frequently to be found 
scattered over the hill-sides everywhere ; or forming a com- 
pact mass of whited sepulchres, as at Amoy ; or occupying 
a place of honour in the middle of a rice-iield, as in the 
neighbourhood of Swatow. Different chapters in such a 
book might be filled with accounts of the graves themselves : 
their construction ; the different styles used in different 
dynasties ; the different styles used in different parts of the 
country at the present day ; the different styles used by high 
officials, lower officials, and the common people ; the inscrip- 
tions on the tomb=stones differing at different periods of 
history and even in different parts of the country at the 



fOPSY-TUR VYDOM. 61^ 

present day ; the different superstitions connected with the 
graves, the folklore, the worship paid at the tombs to the 
spirits of the deceased ; the wonderful farrago of nonsense 
and only glimmerings of a stray truth here and there amidst 
such an amount of darkness and ignorance, as to create a 
doubt whether there be anything but a mass of falsehood in 
the whole system of Tung Shui — the wonderful geomantic 
superstition which centres round the tomb of the deceased 
ancestor as the hope and dread of future generations (See 
Article on Fung Shui), Not a few chapters might be occu- 
pied with descriptions of the coffin to be put in the tomb, 
accounts of the procession to the tomb, and the funeral with 
all the varying customs for different parts of the country ; 
while interesting pages might contain investigations as to 
how much of all the ceremonial has come down from a high 
antiquity and how much has grown on to the original system 
in the course of ages — how much is original ancestor wor- 
ship and how much is due to Buddhism and Taouism ; all 
these would require a full treatment to do justice to the 
subject, and even then much of interest would have been left 
out. We cannot therefore in this article do more than thus 
point to some of the various aspects that the tomb presents 
itself to the Chinese in, and refer our readers to our articles 
on Ancestral Worship, Fung Shui, and Mourning for a notice 
of one or two of the aspects mentioned above. 

Books recommended. — Gray's ' China,' Vol. I., pp. 308-325. Williams's 
Middle Kingdom,' Vol. II., pp. 246, '2o2. Most books on China contain 
something on the subject. ' The Religious Sj'stem of China, ' in seven 
books, by J. J. M. de Groot, Ph. D., now being' published, contains most 
full and particular accounts of tombs, coflins, graves, &c., very much on the 
Hues laid down in the aboMi article. 

T0PSY-TURVYD03L—lt is the unexpected that one 
must expect, especially in this land of Topsy-turvydom. The 
Chinese are not only at our antipodes with regard to 
position on the globe, but they are our opposites in almost, 
every action and thought. It never docs to judge how a 
Chinese would act under certain circumstances from what wo 
ourselves would do if placed in similar conditions : the chances 
are that he would do the very actions we would never think 



614 THINGS CHINESE. 

of performing; think the very thoughts that would never 
occur to us ; and say what no foreigner would ever think of 
uttering. He laughs when he tells you his father or mother, 
brother or sister, is dead ; a bvide that did not wail as if for 
the dead would be a fraud. He asks you if you have eaten 
your rice instead of saying ' How do you do ? and locates 
his intellect in his stomach. For ' good bye ' he says ' walk 
slowly.' Instead of telling you to take heart and be brav© 
when any danger threatens, he tells you to lessen your heart ; he 
makes the most earnest inquiries, not only as to your health 
but asks your age, and compliments you if you are old ; he 
wishes to know what your salary or income is, what your 
rent is, and numberless other polite questions which we think 
impertinent. On the the other hand let no inquiry cross 
your lips as to the welfare of his wife ; nor had you better 
ask after his daughters — his sons he will be glad to parade 
before you; but do not compliment him on the chubby cheeks 
and healthy looks of his baby boy, as any accident or disease 
happening to the youngster will be laid to your account. 
While you have doffed your hat on entering his house, he 
he has put his on before receiving you. He shakes his own 
hands instead of clasping yours ; he places you on his left as 
the seat of honour ; and if he hands you anything he does so 
with two hands. He perhaps shows you with pride the set 
of coffin boards which his dutiful son has presented to him. 

If we look at Chinese books, here again everything seems 
different : the end is the beginning and the beginning is the 
end ; the lines of printing are vertical and not horizontal, as 
with us ; the title is often written on the outside bot- 
tom edges of the books, as they are not stood up in rows 
in book-cases, but laid on the shelves one above the other ; 
while the reader puts in his marker at the bottom of the 
page and not at the top ; footnotes are on the top margin 
or occur in the body of the text, the title is on the edge, 
where the headings of the pages also appear, as well as their 
numbers ; the edges are uncut and are intended to remain 
so, as the paper is only printed on one side, and the interior 



TOPSr-TURVYDOM. 615 

pages arc blank. Sometimes two books are bound in one, 
but then the upper half of the page is taken up with one, 
and the lower half with the other, all the way through the 
book, somewhat like the French feuilleton printed at the 
bottom of the newspaper in France. It is in the same way 
that he keeps his debit and credit accounts in his ofFce or 
shop books, one on the upper half of the page and the other 
on the lower. 

In this dictionaries he uses no alphabet, but laying hold 
of 214 key words, he arranges his tens of thousands of 
words under these. At other times he arranges them by the 
termination of their sounds, so that ling, tning, ting, sing 
would all come under one heading, just as if we were to 
class all our words ending in er together in one part of our 
dictionary, like a rhyming dictionary. 

In the matter of dress we come again across curious 
examples of doing things in a diiferent way from ours. 
The Chinese oiEcial rank is shown by different coloured 
buttons of various materials stuck on the top of the oiEcial 
hat ; the mandarin's clothes are embroidered with animals 
and birds, front and back, for the same reason, and a 
peacock's and other feathers show his honours — all these 
instead of epaulettes, gold-lace and decorations — while a 
string of beads round his neck completes the ' great man's ' 
effeminate appearance. The wearing of bracelets is not 
confined to women, men often have expensive jadestone ones 
on. Neither men nor women wear gloves, but their sleeves 
are so long, falling over their hands, as to be used as muffs 
in cold weather. The capacious sleeves also serve as pockets^ 

A Chinaman wears his hair on the back of his head as 
long as a Avoman's, but on the front it is all shaven off. 
By the hair on his face you may approximately judge his 
age ; before forty-five or thereabouts he is clean shaved, 
after that he cultivates his moustache, and later in life he 
grows all he can, which is not much. The women, as well 
as the men, wear jackets and trousers, and the men long 



616 THINGS CHINESE. 

robes. As a general rule the women wear socks, and the 
men often wear stockings. The men go with comparatively 
thin soles, and the large-footed women with thick ones. 
Some of our ladies are foolish enough to tight-lace ; the 
Chinese ladies bind their feet. We blacken our shoes ; the 
Chinese whiten the sides of their soles. We use our hands 
to play at battledore and shuttlecock ; the Chinese have no 
battledore and kick the shuttlecock with their feet. Boys fly 
kites with us ; they do also in China, but the finest kites are 
the property of grown-up men, who enjoy the flying of them 
as much as boys, if not more. 

Black is mourning with us ; white, gray, and blue, Avith 
the Chinese, and the shoes, as well as cap, hair, and clothes, 
all show it. Red is the sign of rejoicing and is consequently 
used at marriages. 

Babies are habitually carried on the back, nor does a 
gentleman or lady hesitate to accept a similar position when 
being landed from a boat through the mud. Most of the 
small boats are ' manned ' by women. Ladies smoke as well 
as gentlemen, and gentlemen fan themselves as well as the 
ladies. 

The Chinese compass points to the south, not to the 
north, as with us, nor do they say north-west, north-east, 
south-east, and south-west ; but, on the contrary, west-north, 
east-north, east-south, and west-south. On Chinese boats 
the cooking is done at the stern and not in a galley forward. 
They often haul their boats up on the shore stern foremost ; 
their oars, instead of being in one piece, are in two, joined 
in the middle, a short end piece being put on at the handle, 
and, in contravention of our rules of rowing, one hand often 
caps it. They, as often as not, do not keep stroke in rowing, 
but each one pulls his own time ; nor does a Chinaman ever 
think of walking in step, they follow each other, one after 
the other, like a flock of geese. The stone coolies, carrying 
heavy slabs of granite, persistently keep out of step, if we 
may be allowed the Irishism. 



TOPSY'TUR VYDOM. 617 

But there seems to be no limit to the contrariety of the 
Chinaman. He turns his names backforwards as we do in 
our directories : the surnames first and the other names 
afterwards ; and in the same way he transposes (according to 
our ideas) his titles of respect and relationship ; for instead 
of saying His Lordship the Chief Justice, the Chinese he 
uses, if literally translated, would be Chief Justice His 
Lordship, Uncle Sam would be Sam Uncle, and Mr. Brown 
would be Brown Mr. There is one occasion when Ave put an 
official's titles after his name, and that is in a proclamation 
issued by him ; here again the Chinese reverses his usual 
method and put all the titles first and the official's name last. 
He arranges his dates just the opposite to what we do ours, 
for he puts the year first, the month next, and the day last" 
He sometimes buys a little girl and brings her up in the 
house as a future bride for his son, who, in any case, has not 
the trouble of searching one out, for his father and mother 
will do that for him, sometimes even arranging a matrimonial 
alliance before he is born, on the contingency that he will 
prove to be a boy and that the other family will chance to 
have a girl. When a servant wishes to leave your employ, 
instead of telling you so, it often happens that he asks leave 
to return to the country, puts in a substitute, and never 
returns. When a Chinese wishes to consult you about 
any matter he generally sends a friend and either does not 
come at all, or waits downstairs ready if it is imperatively 
necessary for him to appear ; and in the same way nearly 
everything is done through a friend, or go-between, or middle- 
man. 

He turns his fractions upside down and, instead of 
saying four-sixths, says sixths-four. 

Man is the beast of burden in a great part of China, and 
not only does he carry his fellow man, but pigs are even 
carried by the coolies. 

The blade of the saw is set at right angles to the frame, 
and the Chinese carpenter sits to his work, using his feet to 

3 c 



618 THINGS CHINESE. 

hold the wood firm ; he sticks his foot-rule in his stocking or 
down his back. 

'As regards their order of nobility, the Chinese offer 
another instance of their contrariness ; not only * =i^ * 
do a son's deeds ennoble his ancestors, but heredity is the 
exception and extinction the rule.' 

TORTUEE. —Tovtme is divided in China into two 
classes : legal and illegal ; what is permitted and what is 
supposed not to be allowed. 

'The clauses under Section I. of the Code describe the legal 
instruments of torture ; they consist of three boards with proper 
grooves for compressing the ankles, and five round sticks for squeezing 
the fingers to which may be added the bamboo ; besides these no 
instruments of torture are legally allowed, though other ways of putting 
the question are so common as to give the impression that some of 
them at least are sanctioned. Pulling or twisting the ears with 
roughened fingers, and keeping them in a bent position while making 
the prisoner kneel on chains, or making him kneel for a long time, 
are among the illegal modes. Striking the lips with sticks until they 
are nearly jellied, putting the hands in stocks before or behind the 
back, wrapping the fingers in oiled cloth to burn them, suspending 
the body by the thumbs and fingers, tying the hands to a bar under 
the knees, so as to bend the body double, and chaining by the neck 
close to a stone are resorted to when the prisoner is contumacious. 
One magistrate is accused of having fastened up two criminals to 
boards by nails driven through their palms ; one of them tore his 
hands loose and was nailed up again which caused his death ; using 
beds of iron, boiling water, red hot spikes, and cutting the tendon 
Achilles are also charged against him, but the Emperor exonerated 
him on account of the atrocious character of the criminals. Compel- 
ling them to kneel upon pounded glass, sand, and salt mixed together, 
until the knees become excoriated, or simply kneeling upon chains is 
a lighter mode of the same infliction. * * * Flogging is one of 
the five authorised punishments, but it is used more than any other 
means to elicit confession ; the bamboo, rattan, cudgel, and whip are 
all employed. When death ensues the magistrate reports that the 
criminal died of sickness, or hushes it up by bribing his friends, few 
of whom are ever allowed access within the walls of the prison to see 
and comfort the sufferers. From the manner in which such a result 
is spoken of it may be inferred that immediate death does not often 
take place from torture.' 

It is not only the prisoner who is tortured ; but the 
witnesses are also liable to be so treated : the prisoner to 
make him confess, without which he cannot be punished ; the 
witnesses to make them divulge what they are supposed to 



TRADE. 619 

know. The fear that the lower officials are in of being 
reported by their superiors acts as a deterrent in some cases ; 
but, notwithstanding this check, there must be an immense 
amount of torture inflicted on poor humanity in China when 
once within the clutches of the law. No wonder the Chinese 
dread the law and its minions : they have reason to do so. 
The mere incarceration in the loathsome cells attached to the 
yamens is torture itself; and how much more this is aggravat- 
ed by the racks and bambooings and hangings up by thumbs 
and big toes can be better imagined than described. 

Booh recommended. — William's ' Middle Kingdom,' Vol. I., pp. 507^ 
508. Gray's 'China,' Vol. I., pp. 32—38. 

TRADE. — The Chinese are pre-eminently a trading 
race ; "' their merchants are acute, methodical, sagacious, and 
enterprising, not over-scrupulous as to their mercantile 
honesty in small transactions, but in large dealings exhibit- 
ing that regard for character in the fulfilment of their obliga- 
tions which extensive commercial engagements usually 
produce.' 

In dealing with the trade of China, it may conveniently 
be divided into internal, or domestic, and foreign. Trade 
may be compared to the breath of prosperity. A nation that 
has little trade is in a backward state of development, and 
those nations which place less restrictions on the interchange 
of commodities, occupy a foremost place in the world's march 
of progress. 

The volume of the internal trade of China must be some- 
thing enormous. When one travels into the interior, 
especially in the vicinity of some large distributing centre 
like Canton, one is surprised at the constant succession of 
craft, sailing swiftly to remote towns and villages, laden 
with goods for local consumption. The natural facilities in 
the way of broad rivers have been fully availed of and added 
to by numerous canals, while footpaths connect all the inland 
towns and villages, and are traversed by carriers bearing 
loads of merchandise slung to poles thrown across their 

3 c 2 



620 THINGS CHINESE. 

shoulders. In the North of China animals are used as beasts 
of burden, but, in the South, man fulfils that function. 

Nor has the trade of China been simply a modern affair. 
From remote antiquity the Chinese have been true to their 
commercial instincts, and have not only been the civilisers 
of Eastern Asia, supplying them with their letters and 
literature ; but they have also provided for their more material 
wants and received in exchange the commodities which they 
required from the neighbouring nations. Nor did their 
trading voyages go no further than to their immediate neigh- 
bours; as they extended to India and even beyond (See Article 
on Chinese Abroad). This trade with foreign lands was con- 
tinued through successive dynasties, and to it has been added, 
during the last two or three centuries, the maritime trade 
with European countries, which has risen from small begin- 
nings, till it has now attained vast proportions. A most 
interesting chapter in the world's history will be revealed 
when future investigations have added sufficient to the 
material, already gathered and published by patient scholars, 
to form a comprehensive survey of the commercial relations 
of this vast country, not only with her immediate neighbours, 
but with distant countries in Asia, and even with the Roman 
empire, while its more modern developments with Europe 
and America will not be found devoid of interest. 

'Were any proof needed of the vitality of China's foreign trade 
the figures for 1898 would supply it. Various parts of the country 
were disturbed by sporadic rebellions of sufficient gravity to check 
business ; the Yellow River once more burst its banks and flooded 
enormous tracts ; an ominous war cloud during the greater part 
of the year made importers cautious ; the political situation was full 
of menace ; and in September the news from Peking completely dis- 
orgainsed the trade of the northern ports. In spite of these adverse 
circumstances, the value of the Import trade surpassed all previous 
records, while the value of the Export trade exceeded that of every 
past year with the exception of 1897. The total volume of the trade 
was valued at Hk. Tls. 368,616,483, which is the highest on record.' 

These figures at 70 cents gold to the tael are equal to 
$258,031,538.10 and at 2/1 Of to the tael amount to 
£53,180,607-3-7|. 



TRADE. 621 

The figures, however, given above for China, do not 
comprise the whole foreign trade, as they only cover the 
goods carried in foreign bottoms, and which pass through 
the Imperial Maritime Customs (See Article on Customs.) 

' It must bo remembered that the figures which come under 
the cognizance of the Customs do not represent the whole of China's 
Foreign trade. There is a junk traffic to Corea and to the South, 
of which we have no statistics, but which is certainly profitable ; and 
there is considerable trade with iMongolia and Thibet. It is 
estimated, for instance, that 20 million pounds of tea are sent 
annually into Thibet.' 

When these figures are compared with those for 1890 
it will be seen that as represented in taels the trade has 
increased by more than jg-ths to use a favourite Chinese 
expression. The figures for 1890 were Hk. Tls. 
2H.,237,961 = £50,567,971-2-8=1329,926,459.94 Diff"erent 
rates of exchange render the comparison when reduced to 
pounds sterling and dollars and cents less telling. 

■ The net value of the Import trade was Hk. Tls. 209,579,334 
exceeding that of all previous years and being Hk. Tls. 6,750,709 
above the value for 1S97. If we deduct from the figures for 1886 
the value of the Imports into the Formosan ports (no longer included 
in our Returns), which amounted to Hk. Tls. 2,310,321, we find that 
the Import trade then estimated at Hk. Tls. 85,169,002 has increased 
over 145 percent., or, in other words, is nearly 23 times the value 
of what it was 12 years ago. It is evident that a country which 
can increase its purchases at such a rate is finding trade 
advantageous.' 

With regard to some of the articles imported : Opium 
showed a small increase on the previous year, viz., 49,752 
piculs, equal to 2961 tons and 960 lbs. of opium was taken 
delivery of as against 49,309 piculs in 1897, equal to 2935 tons 
and 133^ lbs. In 1890 the figures stood at 76,616 piculs, 
or 4560 tons and 1053^ lbs., a picul being equal to 100 
catties or 133^ pounds avoirdupois, or 60.453 kilogrammes. 
The total amount of opium arriving not only in the Treaty 
Ports but also including Hongkong and likewise embracing 
not only Indian and Persian opium but that shipped from 
Singapore and Penang would probably, if all statistics 
erew available, amount to a total of opium imported into 



622 THINGS CHINESE. 

Hongkong and the Treaty Ports of 60,506 piculs or 3601 tons 
and 1226flbs. 

In this connection it may be noted unfortunately that ' morphia, 
which in the form of subcutaneous injections is being more and more 
used as a cheap substitute for opium, is imported in annually 
increasing quantities. In 1894 an import of 48,324 ounces was 
recorded, and by 1898 the import had steadily increased to 92,159 
ounces. This trade is not one to be encouraged, either from a 
revenue or any other point of view.' 

Of the total amount of opium in round figures some 
40,000 piculs and over were Malwa; a little more than half 
of the last amount, 20,000 piculs and odd, were Patna, more 
than 6000 picules were Benares ; 1900 piculs in round num- 
bers were Persian: and a trifle over 10 piculs was Turkey 
opium. The amount of opium from British territory as 
stated above, exceeeds those from other sources imported 
into China. Enormous quantities of the native grown drug 
are, however, driving out the foreign grown 'dirt,' as the 
Chinese style it, in the native consumption. 

The ports which absorbed the largest amount of opium 
in 1898 were Shanghai, 30,229.39 piculs, nearly half of the 
whole quantity taken by China ; next comes Canton with a 
total of 5876.14 piculs; and Swatow third with 5053.38 
piculs; Amoy figured for 3914.26 piculs; Foochow showed a 
total of 36I8.OI1 piculs ; Ningpo took 3580.96 piculs, and 
Chinkiang, 2954.95 piculs. 

*The value of the Cotton piece goods has remained practi- 
cally stationary for three years.' The figures are as follows : — 

1896 Hk. Tls. 79,243,431 

1897 78,663,280 

1898 77,618,824 

This shows a downward tendency but all of these years are 
high above 1895, Avhen the value was Hk. Tls. 53,074,164. 
Amongst the movements in this class of goods may be noted 
that 'Dutch goods are rapidly losing ground. The advance 
in exports of Cottons from India has been checked. Japanese 
T-Cloths have advanced, but Japanese Sheetings have suffered 
an immense decline. The followino^ extract is of interest :— 



TRADE. 628 

* Manchester can no longer complete with the United States in 
the importation of drills, jeans, and sheetings, owing to the lower 
prices at which the latter country can land this class of goods in 
China. In these heavy makes, which use up a large quantity of 
cotton without demanding such delicate machinery, and highly skill- 
ed labour as are required for finer goods, such as shirtings, the 
freight on the Raw Cotton to England makes an appreciable difference 
in the cost of production. Freights from New York are lower than 
from Liverpool. The goods pass through fewer hands in America. 
Prices are also influenced by the fact that while American manufac- 
turers are using every effort to secure the market here, Manchester 
has more orders at present than can be immediately executed, and the 
large demand from India keeps the mills fully occupied. America 
does not yet compete with Great Britain in finer makes.' 'The impor- 
tation of Cotton Yarn from England and India increased in spite of 
native mills and an exceptional competition from Japan.' 

Large quantities of raw Cotton are imported. 

With such an enormous coal supply such as China has 
herself if only properly worked it is strange to see the in- 
crease in coal imported. The total for 1898 was 730,606 
tons, valued at Hk. Tls. 5,280,620. 

Wollen goods show no development. 

Matches come from Europe as well as a large number 
from Japan. 

The Russian kerosene appears unable to compete with 
Sumatran : the former fell towards a half; while the latter 
rose well on to double the amount in the year before. In 
figures, 36,924,125 gallons fell to 19,926,246 and 14,212,278 
gallons rose to 26,871,865 gallons. 

American flour is still increasing in Chinese favour. 
This increase as well as that in the consumption of white 
and refined sugars, Avhich ' as indicating increased ability 
to purchase luxuries, may be taken as a sign of prosperity.' 

The value of the exports was estimated for 1898 at 
Hk. Tls. 159,037.149, being a small decrease on the previous 
year, that year having been 32 million taels better than 
1895. It is sad to record the continued decline of both the 
tea and silk export trade. In 1888 there were 2,167,552 piculs 
exported direct to foreign countries, the figures in 1898, 



624. THINGS CHINESE. 

ten years after, were 1,538,600 piculs, all kinds of tea, except 

black tea and tablet tea have shown a falling off, while the 

export to Great Britain fell from 244^480 piculs to 200,331, 

that to Russian rose from 168,759 piculs to 213,302 piculs 

sent by sea, and from 528,215 piculs to 562,572 piculs sent 

overland, the Russians knowing what is good tea. 

With regard to silk, it is stated amongst other things 

that : — 

' Silk filatures have not done well during the year.' ' The silk 
trade shows ominous signs of decadence.' 'It can hardly be doubted 
that much might be done to develope this important trade, both in the 
way of fiscal relief and improved methods ; but as long as the 
growers obtain remunerative prices for inferior silk and cacoons, 
they are not likely to cultivate quality.' 

• There is a steady growth in the export of Hemp, Hides 

Leather, Mats, Matting, Oils, Shamshu, Skins, and Tobacco, — 

in some cases the export is nearly double svhat it was in 

1892, and it has even quadrupled itself since then. 

Feathers are also largely exported now : at first this 

trade was confined to those from poultry and ducks; but 

unfortunately the cruel tastes of civilised women in the west 

has not only caused the wholesale destruction of wild birds 

for their plumage ; but has also resulted in the destruction of 

vast numbers of the most beautiful wild birds in the country.' 

The following paragraph from the Report from Hankow 
is not pleasant reading : — 

'Egret feathers and pleasant skins have been anew venture; 
754 catties (value Hk. Tls. 114,236) of the former were shipped 
during the year. This trade is dependent on the caprices of fashion 
* * * * These much-sought-after feathers are developed in the birds 
only when they are breeding. To obtain them the birds must be killed ; 
it will not take very long, therefore, to exterminate the species, as 
has practically have done in North and South America. It was a sad 
sight for sportsmen to see pheasant skins being carried by thousands 
through the streets in July and August. Large prices, induced the 
country people to catch and kill these birds for the representative of a 
firm from Paris, who shipped them to France, there to be made up 
into hats or toques for ladies. 

Since the above was written it is stated that the Chinese 
Government, on representations being made to it by foreign- 
ers, has promised to forbid this in future. 

The export of straw braid has fallen. 



TRABE. 625 

The following paragraph is worthy of notice : — 

' The expansion of the export trade is of the first importance to 
all who have dealings with China, whether as importers or exporters, 
for the people will buy more as they sell more. Increase in imports 
can only take place pari passu with an increase in exports, and 
China will only take the one in exchange for the other * '■' '- ** 
There must be many things in this country, in addition to those 
now exported, such as fibres, dyes, tanning barks, spices, gums, 
etc., which would find a ready market abroad. The establishment 
in Hongkong and Shanghai of commercial museums where samples 
of Chinese products could be collected and exhibited would no doubt 
be followed by satisfactory results.' 

It is interesting to note that Great Britain's share of 
the total tonnage inwards and outwards from Chinese 
waters was 62°/o ; of China herself only 24°/o ; Germany 
o°/o ; Japan the same ; Sweden, Norway, France, America, 
and all other countries combined each 1 °/o — the total tonnage 
being 34,.233,000. 

After this cursory survey of the general trade we will 
proceed to notice a few points of interest in connection with, 
the foreign trade at the different Treaty Ports, for it must 
be remembered it is impossible to do justice to such a 
vast subject us the foreign trade of China in the space of a 
few pages. Amongst other items worthy of note is the 
import of seaweed, which even at ordinary times, is an article 
of diet, but the demand increased in 1898 enormously on 
account of a scarcety of vegetables. In Newchwang the 
import was valued at Hk. Tls. 67,000 in 1888, at Hk. Tls. 
45,000 in 1897, but rose to Hk. Tls. 106,000 in 1898. 

Amongst curious features of the habits of the Chinese 
may be seen the ousting of the Canton rouge used by the 
ladies at and near Newchwang by aniline dyes which they 
find more economical so they now prefer magenta dye made 
it Germany. 4000 tacls worth of soap were imported into 
the same port, an item not required ten years ago. This 
doubtless points to more cleanliness on the part of the natives. 

Another interesting item is nearly eight million squirrel 
tails exported from Tientsin. One sad feature noticed by the 
Commissioner at the last named port is that — 

3 D 



626 THINGS CHINESE. 

'No sooner has a trade been built up than carelessness and 
fraud on the part of the Chinese destroy it. These faults largely con- 
tributed to the ruination of the tea trade. Unevenness of plaiting 
and the use of damaged or stained straws are destroying that in 
straw braid and drawing orders to Japan.' 

These strictures are made with reference to the sheep 
and camel's wool trade ; for more than half and nearly half 
of these two connnodities respectively consists of miul on 
arrival in Tientsin to made up for pilferings en route. 
The Newchwang commissioner likewise complains of Swatow 
packers putting tiles, and those in Amoy putting bamboo joints 
into the bags of sugar. 

In Chefoo a large business is done in the sale of pro- 
visions for foreign men of war and troops, one Chinese shop 
alone making a profit of 2000 or 3000 taels on the exporta- 
tion of eggs to Port Arthur. 

Mr. A. J. Little has created a demand in the London 
market above the supply for Szchwan bristles as cleaned 
and prepared for sale at his new factory in Chungking. 

There has been a large increase in wood oil shipped 
from Hankow to Europe ' where it is used for mixing with 
home-made varnishes on account of its peculiar astringent 
or drying properties.' Large quantities of sesamum seed 
are sent from the same place chiefly to Genoa and Marseilles 
'where the expressed oil is used to mix with and fortify 
so-called olive, or the ordinary salad, oil of tlie table. 
This oil is also used in the manufacture of finer kinds of 
soap.' 

It is interesting to note that Chinaware from the famous 
Ching-te-chen potteries figure to the extent of 48,64<6 piculs 
the largest on record excepting that for 1897, exported from 
Kiukiang. The report from Kiukiang also states : — 

'The progress in the Kerosene oil trade continues to advance 
with the some rapid and gigantic strides that have marked its pro- 
gress from its small commencement, 20 years ago, to the present 
time.' It now amounts to a total of 3,017,020 gallons 'A rough 
calculation shows that a small Chinese lamp economically used 
would consume perhaps 6 gallons of oil in a year; the amount of oil 
passing inland from Kiukiang would thus provide a light in 416,000 
homes. The smallness of these figures in comparison to the vastness 



TRADE. 627 

of the distiicl fed sliows plainly what imincuse louin there is for 
development in the China trade.' 

At this some port, matches show a very remarkable 
development, the importation now being loG,G89 gross, 
against 11,000 gross twenty years ago. Japanese and 
Chinese matches are driving out the European. 

There is also a marked development in foreign needles. 

The Report from Shanghai states that ; — 

'Diseases of various kinds are permeating the silk districts to 
such an extent that those best qualitied to form an opinion look upon 
the extinction of the industry as a question of time only, if strong and 
early action is not taken.' 

Of the trade in straw braid from this port it is stated — 

' The continuous decrease in the export of straw braid, to which 
the past year made no exception, is attributed entirely to care- 
lessness in selection of straw and in plaiting and to dishonest 
packing. Improvements in these respects, it is believed, would yet 
save the trade from the effects of the active competition caried. on 
by the more astute Japanese manufacturers. But as with tea and silk, 
the Chinese producer seems incapable of understanding that honesty is 
a paying policy. That good Chinese makes of braid are still in favour 
is shown by the fact that the prices of such lots as could pass inspec- 
tion were well maintained. ' 

The export of feathers from Foochow has nearly doubled 
itself in five years. In Amoy, tea has fallen from its 
leading position as an export, a total of 10,524< piculs being 
all that was sent abroad in 1898. Sumatra kerosine oil is 
increasing as an import and American and Russian falling off. 
This is the case in other ports as well. Strange to say, 'Ameri- 
can flour can be laid down at a less cost [in Amoy] than flour 
grown locally from native wheat.' 

One of the most important features in Canton was the 
very large export of silk. •' 30 uew steam filatures were estab- 
lished in 1898 and the prospect is that 15 or 20 more will be 
built this year' [1899], Most audacious piracies have been 
committed lately in Canton waters and restricted trade. 

'The decaying tea trade [of Canton] has again diminished by 
over 500,000 lbs.' A dry spring and an insurrection may have effected 
it ; ' but the real reason for the decline is the steady falling off in 
demand for Canton scented capers on the London Market. What 

3 D 2 



628 THINGS CHINESE. 

demand there is is more and more for low-priced teas for blending 
purposes and a few more years will probably see even this small 
demand disappear. The quality of the teas was fully up to the 
average standard, and they were exceptionally well scented.' 

' The Siberian Messenger, in a recent number, gives some interest- 
ing details about Russo-Chinese tea caravans. It is said that between 
Jan. 1st and Jan. 20th of the year [1899] no fewer than 19,000 sledges 
loaded with tea passed through the city of Tomsk. The tea caravans 
generally consist of from 50 to 70, though sometimes of as many as 
from 200 to 300 sledges. As a rule every sledge carries five bales 
of tea, which are sown up in ox-skins and weigh from 50 to 80 kilos 
each. Every group of five sledges is led by one driver, and on the 
back of each sledge there is a bundle of hay and a quantity of 
oats as food for the horse of the following vehicle. Thus there is 
no need for the caravan to stop for feeding purposes. Only the 
horse in front, which is not fed during the march has to be changed 
from time to time, while the other horses are only unharnessed 
when they are quite exhausted. These caravans often take a 
whole year to arrive at their destination ; but the overland transport 
still works out much cheaper than the much shorter voyage by 
sea. Moreover there is no risk of tea getting damp as on board 
ship.' 

The demand for Canton matting exceeds the supply. 

In Canton in 1898— 

'Certain classes of piece goods, viz., drills jeans, and sheeting, 
have decreased from i,688,Sio pieces in 18S8, to 720,321 in 1898! 
while on the other hand during the same period the increase in 
imports from America of the same goods has been from 2,062,338 to 
3,904,511 pieces, due it is thought in a great measure to differentia 
rates of fright.' 

'An interesting operation carried on in Sainam is the tinning of 
rice-birds, soles, and game in limited quantity. This lucrative 
business was started seven years ago and in 1898 there were 10 
shops engaged in it, mostly run by men who have been in the United 
States and who have learned the business of canning there. 
® * * ' In a good year as many as 700,000 are canned, whereas 
in an ordinary season the supply is only about 300,000.' 

The prospects for the year 1899 are very bright; the 
returns which have just been issued showing an increase for 
the half year of over two million Hk. taels on that for 1898. 

What has been written above deals mainly with the 
foreign export and import trade of China, though goods sent 
from one treaty port of China to another, &c., are included in 
the returns, as such goods are carried in foreign bottoms and 
have to pass the Imperial Maritime Customs. 



TUEATY Ports. 629 

The volume of the internal trade of China must be 
something enormous ; but highly interesting as the subject 
would be, it is impossible to write on it for the simple 
reason that no statistics are available, no reliable data are 
in existence, to form the ground work of such a narrative. 
Any account purporting to deal with it would be made up to 
a large extent of hearsay and guess-^vork. 

Book.<: rcrommended : — The Reports from the different Commissioners 
of Customs, gathered together and printed in the Customs Annual Returns 
issued by the Imperial Maritime Customs are most interesting reading. 
These are supplemented by full tables of returns for the different treaty 
ports. The history of the foreign trade with China will be found in 
WUiams's ' Middle Kingdom,' and interesting accounts of this branch of 
the subject will be found in different books on China as well as in papers 
scattered through the ' China Review.' Also see Article in this book on 
' Chinese Abroad.' For an account of ancient trade, see ' China and the 
Roman Orient : Researches into their Ancient and Mediaeval Relations as 
represented in Old Chinese Records,' by F. Hirth, Ph.D. 

TREATY PORTS.~The Treaty Ports in China are so 
called from having been designated by treaties, entered into 
between England and other foreign powers on the one part 
and China on the other, as places where foreign merchants 
shall be allowed to reside and trade. The first of these 
treaties was that of 1842, signed at Nanking, and conse- 
quently known as the Nanking Treaty. By it, the five cities 
of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, were 
declared to be treaty ports. 

By the Treaty of Tientsin, so called owing to its having 
been signed there in 1858 (though ratified at Peking in 
18G0), the additional ports of Newchwang, Tangchow 
(Chefoo), Taiwan (Pormosn). Chuo-chow (Swatow), and 
Kiang-chow, were opened to foreign trade. 

By the Chefoo Convention, signed at that port In 1 876, 
though not ratified till 1886 in London, * Ich'ang in the 
province of Hupeh, Wuhu in Anhui, Wenchuw, in Chekiang, 
and Pei-hai ' (Paklioi in the local pronunciation ) in 
Kwangtung, were opened to trade and made Consular stations. 
By the Chungking Commercial Convention, concluded in 



630 THINGS CHINESE. 

February 1890, it was arranged that Chungking in Szchuen 
should be a Treaty Port, but cargoes have to go in native 
boats, owned by natives or foreigners, until Chinese owned 
steamers ply as far up the Yangtsz as that city, when British 
steamers may do likewise. 

By the Chefoo Conventian Ta-t'ung and Ngan-ching, in 
the province of Anhui, Ho-kau, in Kiangsi, Wusuiih 
Lu-chi-kou, and Sha-shih in Hukwang, all on the Yangtsz 
though not considered Treaty Ports, were allowed to be used 
as stopping places by steamers on that river, but native boats 
are employed to land and ship the cargo and passengers. 

By the Burmah Frontier Treaty the West River was 
what is styled 'opened to trade ' on the 4th of June 1897, and 
two ports on it made treaty ports, Samshui and Wuchow-fu, 
and four ports of call established, viz., the towns of Kongmun 
and Kamchuk, and the cities of Shiuhing and Takhing. 

In 1899 Santuao also came into the list of treaty ports. 

The above is what the English Government has done 
the French by their treaty of 1858 (ratified in 1860) mention, 
in addition to some of the ports in the English treaties, 
Nanking as an open port and it was supposed to 'enjoy the 
same privileges as Canton, Shanghai, Ningpo, and Foochow.' 
However, Nanking was not an open port until the 1st of 
May 1899, although specified as such above, though formal 
opening could doubtless have been claimed at pleasure by the 
French Government. By the Convention of Peace between 
France and China, signed in 1860, Tientsin, in the province 
of Chihli, is made a Treaty Port. 

Again, by the treaty between France and China, signed 
9th June 1885, provision was made for two more places 
to possess similar privileges to the Treaty Ports, though 
situated inland near the French possessions in Tonquin; and 
by the Subsequent Trade Regulations for the Annam frontier, 
jointly determined on by France and China, signed in 1886, 
it was agreed that two places should be so opened ; these two 
places are named in the Additional Convention between 



TREATY PORTS. 631 

France and China 1887, they are Lungchow in Kn-'angsi, 
and Mengtseu in Yunnan, and another place, Mang-hao, is 
also put in the same category. 

'Under the provisions of the Convention between France and 
Cliina signed at Peking on the 20th June 1895 a Vice-consulate was 
established on the 29th October 1895 at Tunghsing, a port on the 
coast and Chinese frontier, some 80 miles West of Pakhoi and 
opposite the village of Monca)' in Tonkin,' the French consul at 
Pakhoi representing his country at Tunghsiang as well. 

' In accordance with the stipulations contained in the 3rd 
paragraph of the "Gerard Supplementary Frontier Convention of 1895' 
Szemao was opened to the frontier trade on the 2nd January 1897. 

'Under the provisions of the [same] Supplementary Convention 
between China and France •■' * a French Consulate was opened at 
Szemao early in August 1890 and a Vice-Consulate, subordinate to 
the jNIengtsz Consulate, was established on the 22nd August at Ho- 
kau, a small village opposite Laokai on the left bank of the Red 
River, at its junction with the Nan-hsi River,' 

We next come to the part taken by Germany in extort- 
ing concessions from China : in the treaty between Prussia 
and China, signed in 1861, (ratified in 1863) the names of treaty 
ports are set out in Article 6, and the riverine ports of Chin- 
kiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow appear in addition to those 
already at that time granted to England and France. By the 
Supplementary Convention between Germany and China, 
signed in 1860 (ratified the following year), German ships are 
allowed to touch at Woosung in the province of Kiangsu, to 
take in or discharge merchandise intended for, or coming 
from, Shanghai. 

Besides all these must be mentioned Whampoa (pro- 
nounced Wong-po), the port of Canton, now shorn of all its 
ancient glory. 

' By a new convention with China ' it is stated that ' Russia is 
to be allowed to establish consulates in Central China, Mongolia, and 
Manchuria. The main purpose of these consulates is believed to be 
the prosecution of Russian trade in these regions.' 

A Chinese Commissioner of Customs is stationed at 
Tatung, a frontier station on the Tibetan side, it is 2;>0 



632 THINGS CHINESE. 

miles from Lhassa. This was opened on the 1st ]\Iay, 
1894. 

Japan, profiting by her war with China, amongst other 
matters, procured the opening of several other treaty ports to 
trade. By the ti*eaty between China and Japan, signed on 17th 
April, 1895 at Shimonoseki and ratified at Chefoo on 8th May 
1895, in Art. VI, the following places were ' opened to the trade 
residence, industries, and manufactures,' 'viz., Shashih, in 
Hupeh ; Chungking, in Szechuan ; Suchow, in Kiangsu ; and 
Hangchow, in Chekiang; and by the same article 'steam na- 
vigation for vessels under Japanese flag on the Upper Yangtsz 
River from Ichangto Chungking,' and 'on the Woosung River 
and the Canal, from Shanghai to Suchow and Hangchow.' 
In the Protocol made at Peking 19th October, 1896, 
to the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between 
China and Japan (made at Peking on the 21st July, 1896) 
sites for special Japanese Settlements at Shanghai, Tientsin, 
Amoy, and Hankow, are provided for in addition to special 
Japanese settlements to be formed at the places newly opened 
to commerce, as stated above. China announced on the 5 th 
April, 1898, the opening to trade of three ports, viz., Tuning 
in Fokien,Yochow on the Tungting Lake, and Chinwang 
near Shanhaikwan. These were opened in 1899, Santu 
being the treaty port in the Bay of Samsah in the Fukien 
province. Woosung has also now been made a treaty port. 
Szemao was opened to the frontier trade in accordance with the 
Gerard General Supplementary Frontier Convention of 1895. 

Nanning-fu in the Kwongsi province with a population 
of 120,000 will shortly be another of the treaty ports. 

We have prepared the following table showing the posi- 
tion and other particulars about the diiferent treaty ports, 
ports of call, &c., trusting that it may prove of interest to 
our readers. It must be remembered that the attempt to give 
the population of a Chinese city or town is often a mere 
guess on the part of those who state it, and, at t he very best, 
rather uncertain. 



TREATY PORTS. 



633 



TREATY PORTS. 



Province. 



Sblngklng 

Manchuria 
Chihll 
Shantung 
Klangsn 



Anhwel 
Klangsi 
Hupeb 



Hunan 

Szechnan 

Cbeklang 

Fuhklen 

Kwongtung 



Ewongii 



Yunnan 



Newchwang 

Chingwanta( 
'I'ieiitsiu 
Chefoo 
Shanghai 



Woosung 
Soochow 
Chlnklang 

Nanking 
Wuhu 
Kluklang 
Hankow 

Shasl 

Ichang 

Yochaufu 

Chungking 

Hangchow 

Ningpo 

Wenchow 



Amoy 
Santuao 

Swatow 



Canton 



Pakhoi 
Samnhui 



Holhow 

Wucbow 

Lungchow 
MSngtsz 



Szemao 
Hoki iw 



Yatung 



ofoSnfng. Population. 



18GU 

]8;)0 

186U 
1863 
1813 



1898 
1896 
1861 

1899 
1877 
1861 
18G1 

1896 

1877 

1899 

1891 

1896 
1842 
1877 



1842 
1899 



1877 
1897 



1889 
1889 



1897 
1896 



60,000 



950,000 

30,000 

400,000 



35,000 
over 600,000 
140,000 

150,000 

79,000 

85,000 

1,000,000 

83,400 

35,000 

60,000 

300,000 

750,000 
255,000 
80H,000 

650,000 

oUO.OOO 

30,000 

2,500,000 

20,000 

3(i.00ij 

12,000 



22,000 
12,000 



15,000 
4,000 



REMARKS. 



On River Llao, 13 miles from 
mouth, near Shauhaikwan. 

On Peilio. 

At junction of Hwangpo and 
Woosung Rivers, 24 miles from 
sea. 

12 miles from sea, on Woo- 
sung River. 

80 miles inland from Shanghai. 

On Yangtsz, 150 miles from 
mouth, at junction of Grand 
Canal. 

On S. bank of Yangtsz, 45 
miles beyond Chlnkiang. 

282 miles from Sea, on Yang- 
tsz. 

On Yangtsz, 466 miles from 
sea, near outlet of PoyangLake. 

River Han, at its junction 
with the Yangtsz, 600 miles 
from Slianghai. 

836 miles from sea, on Yang- 
tsz and 85 miles below Ichang. 

On Yangtsz, 393 miles above 
Hankow and 966 from sea. 

On Yangtsz, 732 miles from 
sea. 

On Yangtsz, 1,400 miles from 
sea. 

150 miles S. W. of Shanghai. 

On River Yung. 
. On River Au, 20 miles from 
mouth. 

On River Min, 34 miles from 
sea. 

At mouth of Dragon River. 

Near Samsha Bay, the port 
is Funing. 

On Hiin River. Chauchow fu, 
35 miles distant, is really the 
treaty port. 

On Pearl River, 50 miles from 
mouth. 

Near Junction of North, West, 
and Canton River, 2 miles from 
the bank, Hok'uu is t)ie port. 

Kiangchow — 4l,uuu, is really 
the treaty jiort, Holhow being 
the port from which It is distant 
3i miles. 

West River, at junction with 
Cassia River, 220 miles from 
Canton. 

At junction of Sungchl and 
Kaoping Rivers. 

Was opened with Manghao, 
latter being on left bans of 
Red River. 

At junction of ilan-hsi and 
Red Rivers. 
■ 25t» miles from Lhassa. 



3 K 



634 



THINGS CHINESE. 



PORTS OF CALL, &c. 



Province. 


Port. 


Date of 

Opening. 


Population. 


REMARKS, 


Chlhli 


Taku 




.... 


At the month of the PelUo, 
is the port of Tientsin, and 67 
miles distant from It. 


Kiangai 


Tat'ung 
Ngancliing 


1886 
1886 






Hukwang, 






.'.'.'. 




i.e., Hupeh and 


Wusueh 


1886 






Hunan 


Luchikou 
Shasliili 


1886 
1886 






Kiangsu 


Woosung 


1861 


35,000 


Is a new Treaty port. 


Kwangtung 


Whanipoa 


1842 




The port of Canton, 12 miles 
from it, on the Pearl or Canton 
River. 




Hok'ou 


1897 




Harbour of Samshui. 




Kongiium 


1898 


100,000 


Delta of Canton River. 




Kamclmk 


1898 




Do. 




Shiuhing 


1898 




On West River. 




Takhing 


1898 




Do. 




Tunghsing 


1896 




80 miles AVest of Pakhoi, 
French Consulate established. 



Foreign subjects are allowed to travel for five days 
within 100 Zi, about thirty-three miles, of the treaty ports, 
but for longer distances or time, passports, obtained from 
their respective consuls, are required. 

At the Treaty Ports there are certain spots reserved for 
the use of the foreign residents, foreign concessions they are 
often called, though at the same time foreigners are allowed 
to reside amongst the Chinese as well. 

These have generally been common to all nationalities, 
the French having a separate one at Shanghai, and the 
Americans having Hongkew. Of late years a strong tendency 
has developed towards the securing of concessions by different 
nationalities for themselves, instead of joining together as 
has hitherto been done to a great extent, and there are 
now a number of such concessions at various treaty ports. 
A part of Shamien in Canton was set apart for the French. 
At Tientsin there are concessions for British, French, 
German, and Japanese, and at Hankow for Japanese, German, 
British, French, and Russian. At Newchwung the Japanese 
have acquired a slice of land for a concession, and the British 



TREATY PORTS. 635 

also a piece for the same purpose. The Japanese have also 
a settlement at Shasi and at Hangchow and Soochow. 

Besides these treaty ports there are the different ports 
or portions of land belonging or leased to foreign nations. 

There is Port Arthur at the point of the Regent's Sword, 
guarding the Northern entrance of the gulf of Pechili with 
Talienwan and the Russian zone of influence. Then there 
is Weihaiwei, held by the British since the 24'th May 1898, 
close to the Shantung province and guarding the southern 
entrance of the gulf mentioned above, which gives access to 
Tientsin and Peking with a portion of land on the map 
described as the British zone of influence. A few miles 
further south, down the coast, we come to the Germans at Kiau- 
chou and their zone of influence. Kiauchau was declared a 
free port on 2nd September 1898, While in the South we have 
the important British Colony of Hongkong which has twice 
enlarged its boundaries on the mainland opposite. Forty 
miles off is the ancient Portuguese settlement (and Colony 
now) of Macao, some 300 years old. Further south is the 
most recent of all, Kwongchauwan with some adjacent land 
where the French have established themselves, hauling up the 
tricolour on the 2nd April 1898. 

It must be remembered by strangers that Hongkong 
and Kowloon (British), Macao (Portuguese), Port Arthur 
(Russian), Kiaochau (German), Weihaiwei (British), and 
Kwongchauwan (French), are not treaty ports, but Colonies 
or Settlements belonging to the different nationalities 
mentioned above. It is almost necessary to call attention to 
this, as letters addressed to the British Consul or to his care 
are not infrequently received in this British Colony of 
Hongkong, and a British official here has been addressed as 
U. S. Customs' officer by a Chinese. 

Books recommended : — ' The Treaty Ports of China and Japan,' by W. 
F. Mayers, N. B. Dennys, and C. King. ' The China and Hongkong 
Directory.' 

3 E 2 



636 THINGS CHINESE. 

TYPHOONS,— The similarity of this word to the Greek 
word TV(})U)v, a whirlwind, has attracted the atteation of 
scholars; but it is thought that the Chinese word tai-feng , 
used in Formosa, is the origin of the term, for, strange to 
say, the Chinese themselves, in the South of China, at all 
events, do not call these cyclonic disturbances tdi-funj, 
which simply means a big wind, but they speak of them as 
fang-kau, storms, or they say td-fang-hau, blowing a storm. 

Much has been done of late years in studying the 'grand 
but perplexing laws which regulate the formations and 
movements of typhoons' ; but still much remains to be done, 
and when stations for their observation shall have been 
established at elevated heights, such as at the Peak in Hong- 
kong, much more in all probability will be known, and a 
complete mastery of the difficult subject may be hoped for ; 
as yet the upper strata of the air, as regards typhoons, is 
almost unexplored. Col. Palmer thus writes of these storms : — 

'The theory of rotatory storms (whether called cyclones, 
typhoons, or hurricanes) * * '■* may be popularly stated thus. If 
from any initial cause, interchanging motions are set up between the 
air in a certain district and another surrounding it, the air in the first, 
or inner district, tends, in consequence of the earth's rotation, to 
gyrate round its centre, in a direction contrary to that of watchhands 
in the Northern hemisphere, and with watchhands in the Southern 
hemisphere. In the outer district these movements are reversed, by 
the principle of the preservation of areas (or moments). These two 
systems of contrary gyrations, especially in the upper strata of the 
atmosphere, where they are less influenced by friction with the earth's 
surface, and therefore more circular, than those below, tend to draw 
the air from the centre of the inner district and from the exterior part 
of the outer district, and heap it up along the zone dividing the two. 
On this zone accordingly, which is the annular region where the 
gyratory velocity in one direction dies out and that in the other direc- 
tion begins, the atmospheric pressure is greatest, while it is least at 
the centre and at the outermost limit ; and the pressure from this 
accumulation tends to force the air near the earth's surface out from 
beneath it, on the one side towards the centre of the cyclone, and on 
the other towards the exterior limit of the outer district, or " Anti- 
cyclone." 

The gyrations once set up, two other forces come into play — 
centrifugal force, and friction of the moving air with the earth's sur- 
face, the former tending to drive the air still more from the centre of 
the inner district and so increase the barometric pressure there. 



TYPHOONS. 637 

To be brief, the result of all the conditions which afifect the case 
is that, on and near the earth's surface, the air of the inner district, 
instead of preserving a circular movement, converges somewhat to 
the centre, flowing round and round in a spiral directed inward from 
the zone of maximum pressure. Under ordinary circumstances, this 
inclination diminishes with the altitude, and it diminishes as the 
velocity of the wind increases, so that it is least near the centre of the 
storm, where, indeed, the winds, being of intense violence, are circular 
or very nearly so. It is greatest on the periphery of the typhoon, 
where, at great distances, the convergence is often nearly directly 
towards the centre. It is greater also on land than on the sea, owing 
to the increased friction with the rugged surface of the land ; and it is 
greater in low than in high latitudes. The air of the outer district, on 
the other hand, describes a spiral directed outwards from the centre, 
in the middle regions of the atmosphere, the air above the cyclone 
inclines outwards from the centre, and at a great distance flows nearly 
directly away from it.' 

The causes of typhoons, though they are not quite 
understood yet, appear to be differences of temperature; 
pressure, and humidity, the last named being less conspicuous 
as a primary cause than as a means of maintaining the 
cyclonic action after it has once been started/ The typhoon, 
once being evolved from Hhe manifold and highly com- 
plicated operations' of the causes stated above, having 
commenced its life in the Pacific, starts on its travels, at first 
slowly, and then more rapidly. The tendency of typhoons is 
to seek the north, but, influenced by the currents of air, they 
are. deflected westwards towards the continent of Asia, and 
and the consequence is they generally take a north-westerly 
direction. They are more at home on the sea, as, when they 
go inl'^nd, mountain ranges block their progress and they lose 
much of their energy, and finally, after proceeding northwards, 
they seek the sea again, ending their course in the Yellow Sea, 
Corea, or Japan. 'As a broad definition then, applicable to the 
normal typhoon, it may be stated that its path is approximately 
a parabola, the vertex of the curve being turned westward 
and situated not far from the boundary of the tropic, while 
its two branches pass respectively over the archipelago of the 
Philippines and that of Japan.' 

The following interesting account may serve to make 
plainer this difficult subject to the reader. It is from the 
pen of a former Harbour Master at Kobe : — 



^38 THINGS CHINESE. 

'The body of wind of which a typhoon consists is in shape near- 
ly circular. * "^ * ** The diameter of this circle has been found 
to vary from about fifty to several hundred miles in length, and the 
height of this body of wind is estimated to be from one to ten miles, 
in perpendicular height. This mass of wind, or typhoon, has two 
different motions, one being progressive and the other circular. 
When a typhoon forms near the Equator its progressive motion is 
first towards the westward, but its course thereafter changes gradually 
northward of this, and by the time it reaches Japan its course has 
thus been changed to some direction between north and east. This 
progressive motion may be taken to be from 7 to 24 miles per hour. 
While the typhoon is thus moving onward, the whole body of wind 
within its circumference is whirling round its centre at a velocity 
of from 50 to perhaps 100 miles per hour. An observer standing at 
the centre of a typhoon would most likely be surrounded by a calm, 
extending probably to a distance of from one to ten miles ; but if he 
moved towards the circumference of the typhoon he would, upon 
coming within the wind circles, find the direction of the wind to be 
from his right towards his left, or in other words, the wind would have a 
rotary movement in a direction opposite to that of the hands of a watch. 
Consequently the wind must be east at the most northern margin of a 
typhoon and west at its southern margin. In like manner it must be 
south at the most eastern margin and north at the western, and it follows 
that the wind on every part of any straight line drawn from any part of 
the margin to the storm's centre must be from the same direction as it 
is at the point where such line cuts the margin. It also follows that 
the direction of wind on opposite semi-diameters must blow from 
opposite directions. The winds outside the limits of typhoons often 
blow in a direction pointing more or less towards the typhoon's 
centre; this is mostly the case in front and rear of such storms. As 
has been stated the motion of the wind within the body of a typhoon 
is circular, and it must therefore blow from every point of the comp3.ss 
during its circuit, and in order to more fully explain from which 
direction the wind blows at different places, the body of the storm may 
be divided into sections by imaginary diameters. First by drawing 
two diameters through the body of the storm, one in a direction 
from north to south and the other from west to east, the storm is 
divided into four quadrants called the N.E., S.E.,S.W., and N.W. quad- 
rants, and bearing in mind the explanation already given, it will be 
found that the wind in the N.E. quadrant must always be from 
between east and south, in the S.E. quadrant between south and west, 
in the S.W. quadrant between west and north, and in the N.W. 
quadrant between north and east. Another division of the typhoon is 
made by drawing a line (called the axis line) through its centre repre- 
senting the latter's path or in other words its progressive motion, this 
divides the storm into two semi-circles, named the right hand and left 
hand semi-circles according as they are to the right or left hand of the 
said line. To distinguish one from the other the reader should imagine 
himself placed on this axis line at the rear of the typhoon, looking 
at it in the direction it is travelling. As the path of typhoons 
do not always lie in the same direction, it becomes evident, 
that the axis line does not always cut off semi-circles con- 
taining the same winds. For instance, in the right hand semi-circle of 



TYPHOONS. 639 

a typhoon travelling to the north-east, the winds would be from S.E. 
to N.W., round by way of S., S.W., and W., while in the left hand 
semi-circle the winds would be from S.E. to N.W. round by way of 
E., N.E., and N. On the other hand, in a typhoon travelling due 
north, the winds in the right hand semi-circle would be from E. to 
W. byway of S, and in the left hand semi-circle from E. to W., 
by way of N. In the latter case the wind on the axis line would be 
E. on the northern side of the centre and W. on the southern side 
thereof. The number of compass points through which the wind 
veers at any place depends therefore upon how near the centre passes 
to such a place. The veering of the wind indicates at once whether 
the right or left hand semi-circle is passing over a place, for if it veers 
from its initial direction towards the right, say from S.SE. to S., 
then the right hand semi-circle is passing over the place, but should 
the wind veer to the left, or say from S.S.E. to S.E. then the left hand 
semi-circle is passing over. The Barometer falls as long as the 
centre of a typhoon is getting nearer, and vice versa. 

" ** '■' '■' ** * According to the above explanation the wind 
strikes all straight lines, joining the centre and circumference of a 
typhoon at right angles, and very little. 



With the given explanation the reader will find no difficulty 
in making other interesting deductions by comparing the two ob- 
servations. To aid him in this, I suggest that he supply himself 
with a circular piece of cardboard, make a small hole in its centre, 
and draw through this two diameters at right angles to each other. 
Mark the ends of the diameters N., E., S., and W. respectively. 
Placing this card before him on a table, with that part of its diameter 
marked N. pointing towards the north, and imagining a body of wind 
to be whirling round the centre, but limited by the circumference of 
the card, he will then have a very good illustration of a typhoon, 
and one which will make the meaning of quadrants, semi-circles 
circular motion, &c., easily understood. To further represent the 
progressive motion of a typhoon, the card requires to be moved in the 
direction towards which the storm is travelling, still keeping the 
N. point of the card pointing towards the north, and still supposing 
the wind to be whirling round the centre of the card,' 

September is the month par excellence, for typhoons, 
but the typhoon months are generally considered to be those 
of July, August, September, and part of October, though they 
are not confined to those months. 

Until late years the advent of typhoons had to be judged 
by the intense heat which prevailed for several days, the fall 
of the barometer and other signs, but, with the extension of 
the telegraph to this part of the world, timely warning of 
their probable arrival or vicinity is telegraphed from ^Manila, 



640 THINGS CHINESE. 

and many lives have been thus preserved. Fortunately for 
Hongkong the course of these dreadful visitations of provi- 
dence is often deflected by one cause or another before they 
reach this 'dot in the ocean,' and they generally strike the 
land further North, up the coast of China, or further South 
down in the neighbourhood of Hainan, or Annam. Occasion- 
ally, in the course of many years, some of most dreadful 
intensity occur; such especially was the awful one of the 
27th of July 1862, the terrific force of which expended itself 
in wrecking the whole river frontage of Canton, so that 
scarcely a house on the river escaped more or less damage, in 
fact the place looked as if it had suffered from a bombard- 
ment, while thousands of the boat people were drowned 
before the eyes of the spectators on shore, who were power- 
less to render them any assistance. The loss of life in the 
city and neighbourhood was estimated at 40,000. The 
author, will never forget, as long as he lives, that awful day, 
the wind blowing with titanic force in great bursts which 
shook the buildings, the air darkened with leaves and bits of 
debris, the raging of the usually calm river, the cries of the 
drowning, the consciousness that any moment might be one's 
last, the passing of the centre of the storm when a lull 
occurred, giving one hopes that the worse was past, to be 
followed by a recurrence of all its force and danger; the 
flooded house, streets like rivers — all combined to form a 
lurid picture, which, once seen, one never cares to see again. 
Such an indelible impression did this great typhoon make 
on the Chinese of that city that for many years they dated 
occurrences from that event. 

Fortunately such terrific typhoons occur but seldom. 
The places in their vicinity, however, participate in the 
disturbances which they -cause around them, having blows 
of more or less intensity, or high winds and downfalls of 
rain, lasting for several days, which serve to cool the 
atmosphere. It is interesting in a slight typhoon, when one 
feels tolerably safe, to watch the needle of the barometer fall 
jslightly with each gust of the wind, and rise slightly agaii^ 



VACCINATION AND INOCULATION. 641 

as it dies dowu. In a typhoon the barometer falls from 

28.80 to 28.50 and even lower readings are seen. Typhoons 

occur nearly every summer : in 1880 there were fourteen 

recorded ones; in 1881, twentv ; but the avera2:e is more 

than fifteen a year. 

Books recommended. — ' The Typhoons of the Eastern Seas,' by Col. 
H. S. Palmer, R.E., 1882. 'The Law of Storms in the Eastern Seas,' by 
W. Doberck, Director of the Hongkono: Observatory. ' The Typhoons of 
the Chinese Seas in the year 1880,' by M. Dechevrens, S. J. Idem for 1881. 
Idem for 1882. Also the Annual Reports of Dr. Doberck, published in ' The 
Hongkong Government Gazette.' 

VACCINATION AND INOCULATION— ^vom the 
reports of the European doctors in China in the earlier years 
of the century, there is no doubt that small-pox used to be a 
common disease not only in the south of China, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Hongkong, Canton, and Macao, but also in the 
north in Peking, in the metropolis of the empire, where it 
was epidemic in Spring and much mortality resulted from 
the visitations, not only to children, but also amongst the 
grown-up population. In the neighbourhood of Canton, or 
in a portion of the province of Kwangtung, it is also stated to 
have been an invariable annual epidemic, lasting from February 
to June, amongst the crowded native population in boats and 
elsewhere. In the province of Shansi, the mortality from it 
was very great, not even inoculation, much less vaccination, 
being known there in the first half of this century. In the 
western provinces of China, the ravages must have been great 
in those days, as also there inoculation was said not to be 
practised. 

These instances are sufficient to show that small-pox 
was a dreadful and dreaded visitant in China, the means for 
coping with it, or stopping its spread, being either entirely 
wanting or inadequate. 

Before the introduction of vaccination, the Chinese were 
acquainted with, and employed, inoculation, which is said to 
have been introduced by a philosopher of Go-mei Shan in 
the province of Sz-chuen. This knowledge was handed down 
to posterity from the time of Chin-tsung of the Sung dynasty 
(A. p. 101^}. 

3 F 



642 THINGS CHINESE. 

Another account says as follows : — 

' It is not to be wondered at that in China they have tried some 
means to check the virulence of small-pox which has repeatedly 
produced terrible havoc amongst its inhabitants. Chinese practitioners 
describe various methods of inoculation which, it is said, was dis- 
covered at the latter end of the second century tor protecting a grandson 
of Prince Tchiu-Siang, (P. Dabry,' ' La Medecine chez les Chinois,') 
They have also learned by experience the dangers of inoculation.' 

Different methods were employed, one plan was to insert 
in the nose a pledget ( a piece of cotton-wool, in most cases 
probably ), impregnated with the virus ; another plan was 
to take the lymph itself, or the crust rubbed down with 
water, and introduce into the sore ; while another mode was 
to dry the crusts, reduce them to powder, and blow this power 
up the nose —this being called dry inoculation; yet another 
and more loathsome way was to dress the child with clothes 
that had been worn by some one with small-pox. Inoculation 
would appear to have been largely practised by the Chinese. 
It was stated that in Shanghai, the greatest number of the 
children were thus treated. One Chinese writer, the author of a 
treatise entitled, 'the Preservation of Infants by Inoculation,' 
supposed that small-pox arose from poison introduced into 
the system from the mother's womb, and he believed this to be 
proved since small-pox only occurs once in a life time. All dis- 
eases amongst the Chinese are associated with, or are the result 
of, the principles of heat or cold. Small-pox is due to the heat 
principle. It remains latent, or concealed, in the human 
system ' till it is developed through the agency of some ex- 
ternal, exciting cause.' Hence, as it might break out at any 
time, they thought it advisable to use some means to modify 
its virulence, therefore they believed that, by inoculation, when 
the patient's system Avas in a healthy condition, and at times 
and seasons which appeared most advantageous, this might 
be accomplished. The Chinese writer we have mentioned 
above says : — 

' The disease when it breaks out spontaneously is very severe 
and often fatal ; whereas when it is introduced by inoculation it is 
generally mild, and casualties do not occur oitener than once in ten 
thousand cases ** * To discard this excellent plan and sit 

waiting for the calamity, is much to be deprecated.' 



VACCINATION AND INOCULATION. 643 

This author has evidently been carried away with 
enthusiasm for his subject, as foi'eign writers speak of the 
dangers attendant on inoculation as compared with 
vaccination. The fatality is described as being very great 
by one in Soochow, and when the doctor comes to ' plant the 
small-pox ' as it is described, * the family go through ex- 
tensive religious ceremonies, the god being worshipped with 
a feast, incense, and firecrackers.' Another, a doctor, thus 
writes : — 

'A child generally thus takes the small-pox mildly, but the 
children thus treated sometimes take the confluent form of the 
disease by which sight and even life is lost. 

It is true that the disease taken by inoculation is generally 
milder than when it is taken spontaneously, but the great objection to 
inoculation is, that the disease itself is thus maintained among the 
community, and every case is a focus of infection ; whereas in 
vaccination the tendency is to get rid of small-pox altogether, serious 
accidents do not occur from it, and there is no liability to take on a 
fatal form of disease.' In the report of the hospital at Ningpo pub- 
lished in 1851 it is stated that, 'inoculation at onetime proved fre- 
quently fatal.' 

However in lieu of a more excellent way, the Chinese 
put their confidence in inoculation. 

It was stated that without inoculation the mortality 
from small-pox in Shansi under the most favourable circum- 
stances was 20 to 30 per cent of deaths, while in worse cases 
it rose to 50 or 60 per cent ; but ' after inoculation only one 
per cent proved fatal.' 

It is curious that, like several other things, inoculation 
appears to have been introduced into the West from China. 

' It has been known and practised in China since the time of 
the Sung dynasty, about 800 years ago. It was first introduced 
into England by Lady Montague, the wife of the British Ambassador 
at Constantinople in 1721, and doubtless had found its way to Turkey 
across the centre of Asia from China. The Turks who lived on the 

Chinese frontier must have carried the knowledge of it when they 

moved westward.' 

There are ten rules with regard to inoculation compiled 
by a retired scholar of the name of Lew Lan in obedience to 
an Imperial Decree, and these were inserted in the ' Golden, 

3 r 2 



644 THINGS CHINESH. 

Mirror of the Medical Practice.' They have in latter times 
been discoursed upon by celebrated physicians who have 
* revised them with much care and attention.' 

The rules are as follows :— 

1st Regarding variolous lymph : — This is the fluid that comes 
from the small-pox pustules and must be taken from a child which 
has a mild form of the disease ; whether arising spontaneously or from 
inoculation, the pustules ought to be round or pointed, and of a clear red 
colour, the fluid abundant and the crust which comes away clear and 
consistent like wax. 

o » « After [inoculation] seven days, fever appears ; three days 
afterwards the spots show themselves ; three days after this the 
spots become pustular ; in three days more the crusts form, when the 
whole is completed. If the inoculation does not take effect it may 
be repeated in fourteen days. 

2nd. Seasons : — The Spring and Autumn are the most favourable 
seasons for inoculation, or any time when the weather is moderate; 
during the very hot, or cold months, it ought not to be done. 

3rd. Choice of Lucky Days : — A lucky day ought always to 
be chosen; the nth and 13th days of the moon must always be 
avoided. 

4th. Management of the Patients : — During the process of 
inoculation it is of great importance that strict rules of management 
be adopted in respect to heat and cold ; with attention to diet and 
the avoidance of any cause of alarm or fright. 

5th. At the time for inoculation the child must be examined and 
the state of its heath ascertained ; strict attention must also be paid 
to the state of the family, and if the child be sick, the operation must 
not be performed. All children ought to be inoculated when they are 
one year old ; if the health be good, this ought by no means to be 
neglected. 

6th. Restricting :~The room of the inoculated child ought to be 
clean and airy, and well lighted ; all excitement must be avoided, 
and the child kept quiet and placid. 

7th. Promise of the Eruption : — After the inoculation and before 
the fever appears, there suddenly arise on the child's face several 
pustules like small-pox ; these are called the " sin miaii," promise, 
or belief of emption ; it is the forerunner of the disease, and the 
evidence of the poison having taken effect. 

8th. Repetition of the Inoculation : — If after waiting fourteen 
days, the fever does not appear, should the season still be favourable, 
the inoculation may be repeated. 

9th. Mode of Action : — The inoculation must affect the viscera 
^nd the fever commences. The nose is the external orifice of the 



VACCINATION AND INOCULATION. 615 

lungs ; when the variolous lymph is placed in the nose, its influence 
is first communicated to the lungs ; the lungs govern the hair and the 
skin ; the lungs transfer the poison to the heart; the heart governs 
the pulse and transfers the poison to the spleen ; the spleen governs 
the flesh, and transfers the poison to the liver ; the liver governs the 
tendons, and transfers the poison to the kidneys ; the kidneys govern 
the bones, the poison of the small-pox lies hid originally in the 
marrow of the bones ; but when it receives the impression from the 
inoculation, it manifests itself and breaks out externally. 

loth. General Rules : — Inoculation is to be performed when there 
is no disease present in the system ; good lymph must be selected, a 
proper time chosen, and good management adopted, and then all will 
go on well. ' 

As to the introduction of vaccination. 

* Many attempts were made to introduce the practice of vaccina- 
tion into China during the early period when commercial relations 
were in existence between the East India Company and the Chinese. 
In 1805 a Portuguese subject, a merchant in Macao of the name of 
Hewit brought vaccine over " upon live subjects from Manila," the 
King having had vaccine conveyed to the Philippines by suitable 
means and professional- men across the South American continent. 
It was extensively practised by Portuguese practitioners in Macao 
as well as by Dr. Pearson upon the inhabitants of that ancient city, 
as well as amongst the Chinese.' 

Dr. Pearson, a surgeon of the East India Company in China 
carried on the work of its introduction to the natives with great 
vigour and perseverance. 

* Stated periods were fixed at which the Chinese received the 
benefits of vaccination from the doctor's hands, nor was the experi- 
ment unattended with success. It soon sprang into favour amongst 
the Chinese, who, though very conservative in their feelings, when 
once convinced of the benefit of any new method, take it up very 
readily, and great numbers were brought to be operated on during 
the period of the raging of small-pox in the course of the winter and 
spring months of 1805-6.' 

Thousands were vaccinated in the course of twelve 
months and the Chinese who had been instructed by Dr. 
Pearson practised it extensively, not only under his immediate 
inspection but at a distance as well. When the immediate 
need for this protective influence against this fell and foul 
disease was gone — when in short, small-pox ceased to be 
epidemic, ' the evil and the remedy against it were equally 
forgotten' and Dr. Pearson 'found great difficulty in procur- 
ing a sufficient number of subjects by means of which, 



644 THINGS CHINESE. 

merely to preserve the vaccine.' Twice was it necessary to 
have it re-introduced from the ' islands of Lucona,' and twice 
it was found to have been kept up at country districts. In 
his report for 1816, Dr. Pearson speaks about its spreading 
greatly 'from among the the lower classes of society, so as 
to have become general among the middling ranks and to 
be frequently resorted to by those of the higher conditions .' 

The Chinese native doctors had strenuously opposed 
it, and still at that period it met with but little acceptation 
by them, and alarms of failures had occasionally been 
spread ; there was also a prejudice against submitting 
children to vaccination in the summer and autumnal months, 
doubtless owing to the fact that in the time of such great 
heats it had been observed Uhat all diseases attacking or 
brought on at that season are more than usually dangerous 
or severe/ 

The principal members of the ' Chinese commercial cor- 
poration in whom was vested the exclusive privilege of 
dealing with Europeans ' established a fund for the gratui- 
tous vaccination of the poor at all times, offering a small 
premium to those who brought their children for that pur- 
pose ; and from fifteen to forty were vaccinated every ninth 
day by a Chinese vaccinator, while Dr. Pearson inspected 
the pustules from which the lymph was taken and this 
simply to put an end to a malicious rumour that the Chinese 
vaccinators had not been circumspect in the choice of the 
matter they used. 

The medical servants of the East India Company were 
always ready to vaccinate gratuitously all persons who 
wished it ; though the taking of it thus up by the Chinese 
themselves conduced to the spread of the practice; and 
it became a source of reputation and emolument to the 
Chinese themselves who were employed for the purpose. 

Great numbers must have been vaccinated at this early 
stage, and it was believed that the greater mildness of the 
epidemics of small-pox which followed were due to the 



VACCINATION AND INOCULATION. 647 

Chinese acceptance to such an extent of this protective 
against the disease. 

A report on the subject was again made in 1821. This 
states that ' the practice of vaccination, had been uninter- 
ruptedly continued ' and had ' received a steady and gi'eat ex- 
tension with increased confidence in its efficacy.* Small-pox 
had in the preceding and that season ' prevailed in an un- 
usual degree of severity and attended with mortality ; ' but 
the results of the investigations that were instituted proved 
that vaccination was satisfactory, though every endeavour 
was made to discover whether certain complaints were well 
founded. These complaints had divided themselves into two 
heads : viz., vaccination with spurious matter, or imperfectly, 
or unskilfully conducted ; and the other, the following of 
the vaccination by a modified small-pox. Under the first 
heading none presented themselves who had been vaccinated 
under inspection, or at the Canton Institute ; under the other 
heading the number was few. The general reliance of the 
Chinese was not shaken. 

Vaccination had by this time extended to the neigh- 
bouring province of Kwong-tung, but had met with a check 
from the hostility of the priesthood and had been dropped. 
This opposition was due to two circumstances ; for the 
priests had been used to inoculate after the Chinese methods 
and their deities had been resorted to in times of visitation 
of this plague. Unfortunately scarlet-fever also broke out 
and the blame of this was laid on vaccination, which it 
was said ' retained the poison in the system, to appear at a 
future time in still worse shapes.' 

Between 1821 and 1833 two reports were made and 
from them it is learned that the practice extended itself 
largely amongst all sorts and conditions of Chinese in the 
Canton province. It was also conveyed to the Kiangsi, 
Kiangnan, and Fukien provinces, and even reached Peking 
but was lost there. 



648 THINGS CHINESE. 

' Its anti-variolous efficacy ' was ' universally known and confided 
in ; ** *' its preservation during the period specified had greatly, 
almost exclusively, resulted from the well-adapted system pursued 
at the institution, and the agency of the Chinese vaccinators ; the 
principal of whom A-he-qua ^who ' had ' been engaged in the practice 
since 1805') was 'a man remarkably qualified for the business by 
his cast of judgement, method, and preseverance. He had been en- 
courged in his laudable exertions by the favourable opinion of his 
countrymen and by marks of distinction or consideration which ' had 
' been conferred upon him by the higher functionaries of the local 
government.' 

A further mention is made of the same man at a later 
date in the same magazine for the year 1842, when it was 
stated that some cases of small-pox prevailed and it goes on 
to add that ' vaccination for the prevention of this disease, 
had been regularly and succesfuUy practised every eighth day 
during many years by He-qua at the Public Hall of the 
Hong merchants.' Dr. Pearson, at the same time as he 
started vaccination, caused a tract to be printed on it 
in Chinese, Sir George Staunton translating it : this was in 
A.D. 1805. It set forth the advantages and benefits to be 
derived from vaccination, and was of great use, being 
republished at Shanghai subsequently with some corrections 
and slight additions; part of this same tract of Dr. 
Pearson's was incorporated into a native tract also republish- 
ed in Peking in 1828, this latter having been originally 
published at Canton in 1817. 

The Russians introduced vaccination into Peking before 
1828 'as early as 1820, the medical gentlemen attached 
to the Legation * * practised vaccination among the 
Albasines — now Chinese naturalised subjects.' 

'Vaccination among the Mongols was attempted before it was 
introduced at Canton by Dr. Pearson, but excepting the following 
notice, we do not know whether it has since been practised, " Mr. 
Rehmann, physician to his S. H. Prince of Fiirstenberg, has 
lately received a letter from his son, physician to the Russian 
embassy in China. This letter is dated from Kiakhta on the 
frontiers of China 14th October 1805. Mr. Rehmann, Junr., writes 
that be has vaccinated a great number of the children of the 
Mongols, o 6 « « 55 jjg assures his father,that in consequence 
of the measures he has employed, vaccination is now propagated 
from Jekutzh, as far as Jakutsh and Ochotzk and consequently from 
England to the rejnoteit extremity of the northern part oi the globe.' 



VACCINATION AND INOCULATION. 649 

We have seen how it was introduced into Canton and 
some of the other provinces. Its utility soon became known, 
* and the practice quickly spread over the empire.* 

Vaccination was introduced into Peking * by the Prefect 
Tseng who had formerly been a mandarin in the South * in 
1828. In 1864 there were three vaccination establishments 
in the city, one having a branch in Tientsin. It was stated 
then concerning Peking : — 

' Small-pox is still a great scourge, owing chiefly to the careless- 
ness of the people in not availing themselves of it [vaccination] in time. 
It is said to be endemic — all children, they assert, take it by the will 
of Heaven ; there is no escape — iic volvtre Parcas.' This report goes 
on to say 'the vaccine establishments here are well conducted. 
Attendance is given every eighth day, or oftener, if the weather be very 
dry, and the lymph operates rapidly. Tickets of admission are 
granted, the name, address, age, and sex are carefully noted down in 
a register kept for the purpose. A note is take of the number of 
vaccination days each year ; the number of children vaccinated, 
those in which it succeeds amongst those who return. The statistics 
for 1 893, of the oldest and principal stablishment here I subjoin, as 
given by the vaccinator : — 

Number of vaccination days, 61; number vaccinated 2227; 
children, of those who returned, 1229 ; of successful vaccination, each 
child being vaccinated in six places, 6080 ; vaccination days during 37 
years, 811. 

The establishments are not only gratuitous, but a gratuity is 
given to the parents to bring the children back. In Spring when the 
cases are numerous, they receive, on their second visit about 2d ; in 
the Autumn and Winter, when the cases are few, they receive about 
2d on their first visit, and on their return about gd. When there is 
the least danger of the lymph becoming exhausted, beggar children 
are hired to be vaccinated who live in the Hospital. 

When called upon to vaccinate the nobility, these children are 
taken in a cart to the residences of the aristocracy, in order to have 
the lymph, in the recent state, transferred from their arms to those of 
more fortunately-situated children. This method which could not 
always have been of the most agreeable description has been super- 
seded by tubes from this Hospital [London Mission Hospital], When 
it was first proposed to introduce vaccination into the metropolis, it 
was arranged to have a relay of boys upon the road to be vaccinated 
in succession every eighth day, but this plan was abandoned when 
the means of conveying scabs was found out. The dried scabs on 
reaching Peking were mixed with Mother's milk o ® o o o ^ 
The tracts and sheets printed and distributed on the subject display 
a great ignorance of the true principles of physiology. They suppose 
the poison of the small -pox to be located about the insertion of the deluii 

3 G 



650 THINGS CHINESE. 

muscle and hence direct the lymph to be introduced at three distinct 
places in each arm, the upper one to be four inches from the shoulder, 
and the lower one two inches from the elbow. They give drawings 
of the position and of the lancets which, by the bye, are all of foreign 
manufacture. They are very particular regarding the diet, warning 
most carefully to avoid the smells of whisky, opium, heated kangs, 
and dirty or decaying matter. 

For at least loo days after vaccination, cocks, certain kinds of 
fish, beef, eggs, beans, and bean flour are to be avoided. For three 
years after vaccination, buckwheat, and cherries are to be shunned. 
The things enjoined are vegetables, pork, and salted ham. Three 
days after vaccination, they are allowed to eat shrimps, with rice 
spirit, Mongolian mushrooms, and mutton ; and only in Winter must 
birds' nests, steamed with sugar-candy be eaten.' 

The medical missionary hospitals have had a large 
share in both carrying on the work of vaccination when once 
started and in introducing it into parts of the country where it 
was unknown before. In this way it was first brought into 
Shanghai in 1861, and at other times into various other 
places. 

By all these different ways, included in which of course 
is the use of it by the Chinese themselves, the employment of 
vaccination has pretty well spread through the empire ; not 
only have individual Chinese taken it up as a means of 
earning their living ; but charitable institutions have 
employed men to go about the country and vaccinate, as well 
as at the institutions themselves. 

The following extract from a Customs' Medical Report for 
1877-1878 by Dr. Wong Fung, a Chinese, but an M. D. of 
Edinburgh University, the doctor for some years of the 
Foreign Community in Canton, and of the Imperial Maritime 
Customs will be of interest here : — 

' To Dr. Alexander Pearson of the East India Company is due the 
great credit of first establishing by a long course of labour extending 
from 1805 to 1820, the practice of vaccination among the natives of 
Canton. But although this practice was introduced so early and has 
been kept up, more or less, among the population ever since, it appears 
that the people have been rather careless to avail themselves of it; 
and it is only of late, perhaps within the last 15 years, that it has 
obtained extension to all classes and conditions of men from the 
highest to the lowest, whether living on land or on water, so that at 
present it may be estimated that, at lea^t 95 per cent, of the children pf 



Vaccination and inoculation 651 

the city receive the benefits of vaccination. The general age at which 
children are vaccinated is about the second year, and the earliest 
about the fourth or fifth month. There are in the city many men 
engaged in the practice, some of whom receive pay from benevolent 
individuals to open dispensaries for free attendance on the poor on 
stated days. In the country vaccination has also made great 
progress in the confidence of the people and professional men are 
found in villages, either practising on their own account, or hired by 
the gentry for the purpose. The two niost noted vaccinators of the 
city are Yan hee and Tan Yih Sing. The grandfather of the former 
was instructed in the art by Dr. Pearson in 1806, and carried it on 
with such success and became so widely known that his family 
receives marks of recognition from the Government in the shape of 
some official title, and also, I believe, a grant of Tls. 100 per annum for 
the preservation of lymph. Tan Yih Sing has also a large practice, 
some say on account of the confidence placed in him as one skilful in 
the diagnosis of leprosy, and likely to be circumspect in the selection 
of lymph. It was always the custom to vaccinate direct from the 
arm, but of late years many Chinese, including the individuals above 
mentioned, have been taught by Dr. Kerr to preserve lymph in glass 
tubes. Chinese mothers strongly object to have lymph taken from 
their children, under the idea that it weakens their constitution, and 
would not part with it but for money, so that vaccinators have to 
secure their supply of lymph by paying children successfully 
vaccinated to come to their houses. When a doctor is called to a 
family to perform vaccination he takes a child with him to furnish 
the vaccine, for which he generally gets 50 cents or $x, as a fee, and 
the child 25 cents for the lymph. Poor people may be vaccinated 
for 10 or 25 cents.' 

Again as to its present practice. In the Report on 
Ningpo in the Custom's Annual Trade Report for 1896 
appears this : — 

'Among the local developments of the year may be noticed 
a free vaccination institution supported by contributions from the 
Customs banker, Yen Taotai.' 

Vaccination is carried on at the Tung Wa Hospital in 
Hongkong, free to all comers, the subjects are nearly all child- 
ren, but there are some grown-up people as well. This hospi- 
tal does not send out doctors into the country to vaccinate ; 
but some hospitals in Canton do. These doctors go to some 
principal city and stay there for some time and vaccinate. At 
these benevolent hospitals there is no charge ; but the private 
practitioners charge a small fee and only have occasional 
patients. The Chinese within the last ten years are beginning 
to see the good of it more and more every day. In the 

3 G 2 



652 THINGS CHINESE. 

country they vaccinate from child to child without procuring 
fresh lymph. This is done amongst the poor and even 
amongst the rich, unless they understand about it; there is, of 
course, a chance of getting it from a poor subject; they take 
precautions to only inoculate from the healthy, though the 
possibility exists of getting it from an unhealthy child. 
The writer has heard of one case where the lymph was taken 
from a leper's child, who appeared to be free from the disease, 
and the vaccinated child took it. The general run of doctors 
take their lymph from the arm ; but rich people, who can 
afford it, do not. The Chinese are not aware of the necessity 
of re-vaccination. They think they are not so liable to 
small-pox as Europeans, for they do not eat roasted and 
broiled meats, as they (the Europeans) do. 

The Chinese doctors vaccinate very carefully three spots 
on each arm, that is six spots, with an English lancet and 
cutting very deep. 

The lymph now used in Hongkong, Canton, and neigh- 
bourhood is procured from the Government Vaccine Institute 
in this Colony. 

Except in the neighbourhood of treaty ports or where 
European influence prevails, as at all mission stations, it may 
he said that practically vaccination, as at present performed 
by the Chinese themselves, is from arm to arm, lymph being 
now used is hundreds of generations from the original arms ; 
but where, as above, European influence prevails, calf lymph 
is being introduced, but the style of vaccination from arm to 
arm prevails. Re-vaccination is not practised. 

Special attention is given to vaccination at the Mission 
Hospital in Canton * and the work begun by the hospital has 
been taken up and pushed vigorously forward by native 
ai^sociations, as many as five hundred specialists being 
despatched in one season to interior districts, in the interests 
of this work.' 

Books recommended : — Different volumes of the ' Chinese Repository ' 
contain accounts of the introduction and progress of vaccination amongst 
the Chinese in the early days. Also ' The Chinese and Japanese Bepository. 



WOMAN, THE STATUS OF. ^S 

The Annial Reports of the numerous missionarj'- hospitals throughout 
China also contain, very often, accounts of what is being done not only in 
the hospitals themselves, but, sometimes, of what is being done by the 
Chinese in their neighbourhood with regard to vaccination. 

WOMAN, THE STATUS Oi^.— Woman, in China, 
occupies a totally different sphere from that of man ; a sphere 
which, chough it must of necessity touch that of man at 
certain points, should be kept as separate as possible. At 
the eav'y age of seven, according to the practice of the 
ancients, ' boys and girls did not occupy the same mat nor 
eat together'; and this is still carried to such an extent that 
a Avoman's clothes should not hang on the same peg as a 
man's, nor should she use the same place to bathe in. The 
finical nonsense that all this engenders is something absurd; 
it is not even proper for a woman to eat with her husband. 
Amongst the lower classes, fortunately, the proprieties in 
this respect are more honoured in the breach than in the 
observance, and it is a pleasant sight to see a labourer and 
his wife partaking together of their frugal meal ; common 
sense and the exigencies of common life getting the better of 
philosophy, vainly so called. 

Woman is made to serve in China, and the bondage 
is often a long and bitter one : a life of servitude to her 
parents ; a life of submission to her parents-in-law at 
marriage ; and the looking forward to a life of bondage 
to her husband in the next world, for she belongs to the 
same husband there, and is not allowed, by the sentiment 
of the people, to be properly married to another after his 
death. The birth of a son frees her to a certain extent from 
the degradation of her position, for it promotes her to some 
degree, .vithin the house only, of equality with her husband. 
All these restrictive customs are based on the idea that 
woman occupies a lower plane than man : he is the superior, 
she the inferior ; as heaven is to earth so is man to woman. 
All her Dringing up is with the aim of teaching her perfect 
submission to the paramount authority of man ; for she 
ought to have no will of her own : her will must be in 
complete subjection to that of his. Does her husband have 



654 TlilNGtS ClilNESE. 

friends at his house ? She is invisible, a nameless thing, for 
it would be an insult for a visitor to enquire after his host's 
wife. Do the gentlemen require female society ? The absurd 
seclusion of respectable women drives them to seek it in the 
company of the courtesans, who, in order to fit them for 
their life, are educated in music, and taught such accomplish- 
ments as will render their society more acceptable ; reminding 
one of the position held by the Grecian hetcerce. 

Of so little account is woman in China, that a father, if 
asked the number of his children, will probably leave out 
the girls in reckoning ; or, if he has no boys, his reply will 
be * only one girl,' said in such a tone of voice, as to call 
forth the sympathy of his listener for his unfortunate 
position. 

In the very great majority of cases the girls are not 
taught to read or write ; not, as was the case with some of 
our great-grandmothers, for fear they should learn how to 
write love letters (for the billet-doux does not flourish in 
China), but for the simple reason that it is useless for girls to 
learn to read (See Article on Education). Embroidery, plain 
sewing, the manufacture of tiny shoes for her cramped-up 
feet, * golden lilies ', as they are euphemistically termed, and 
interminable gossip, fill up the lady's uneventful life, not 
even broken by the pleasure of a daily walk, for she must be 
closely shut up in her sedan if she ventures out on a call. 
The chivalry of the West, with its modern Christianised 
crystallisation of place aux dames and other mottoes of 
polite conduct where the weaker sex is concerned, is utterly 
unknown, as witness the brutal chaff, descending sometimes 
even to obscenity, whenever a young giri or lady is seen in 
the street : every man makes a point of turning round and 
staring at her ; no matter how respectable she may be, some 
boisterous fun is made of her pretty face ; she has to run the 
gauntlet of jeers from a crowd of rough men, all the worse 
to bear on account of her usual seclusion from all out-door 
life, and as her small feet handicap her pace, her rude 
reception is reduced to a slow torture. 



WOMAN, THE STATUS OF. 655 

No fashionable mother in England, lost to all the 
instincts of natural affection, who sacrifices her daughter in 
marriage to position or wealth, but will find a counterpart 
in nearly every Chinese mother and father, who no more 
think of taking their daughter's feelings into consideration 
than they would think of asking her to fly. Shut up in the 
' inner apartment ' — the Chinese equivalent of the Indian 
zenana, though not such a horrible imprisonment as the 
latter, — the young maiden, as she blossoms into womanhood, 
has but little chance of seeing her future intended. 

As the Chinese poet sings : — 

* A mien severe and eyes that freeze, 

Become the future bride ; 
No whispering underneath the trees, 

Ere yet the knot be tied.' 

But it would not be human nature were such stolen 
pleasures not to be found sometimes amongst the sweets of 
life for a Chinese girl; and if she chance to have picked up 
a little knowledge of the Chinese printed character, her novel 
reading will occasionally give her natural feelings such a 
fillip as to develope the latent instincts of affection and enable 
her to burst through some of the prudery of the unnatural 
system of Confucianism. 

Human nature is the same the wide world over, and 
Chinese boys' and girls' hearts are cast in the same mould as 
those of the West ; but, unfortunately, girls' hearts here, like 
their feet, are cramped and distorted out of all shape and 
recognition. Every tendency towards love between man and 
woman is immoral, and to be repressed, and, being repressed 
in its natural and pure direction, takes an unnatural one ; for 
many a Chinese girl or women has to be content with the 
position of a secondary wife ; her husband having married 
his first — legitimate one —from family policy, may select his 
secondary or subsequently-taken wives, from pure afiection. 
Women are sometimes thus rescued from an immoral life 
and brought into a home ; but a dwelling where several wives 
usurp the place which ought to be reserved for one, falls 
far short of the English conception of the word hom^, 



656 THINGS CHINESE. 

Sometimes the husband distributes his 'weaker vessels ' into 
as many different houses as there are wives, in order to 
minimise or prevent altogether the jealousies or bickerings 
which often ensue when all live in one house. In the latter 
case they are sometimes distributed through the house, 
which must be a large one. A propos of this is the Chinese, 
proverb ' one key makes no noise, but two keys create a 
jingling.' 

Notwithstanding all the disadvantages under which 
women labour in China, they at times rise superior to them, 
and, pushing past all the obstacles in their path, take a 
foremost position, not only in the state, but in the lumbler 
sphere of the family, as well as in the more difficult one of 
letters and literature. 

In some Chinese works, passages are found which show 
that the respective authors look upon marriage occasionally 
at all events, as we in the West do, for instance : — 

'They ate together of the same animal and joined in 
supping from cups made of the same gourd ; thus showing 
that they now formed one body, were of equal rank, and 
pledged to mutual affection.' 

' The ceremony of marriage was intended to be a bond 
of love between two of different surnames ' — after which this 
passage goes on, to speak of ancestral Avorship, &c. 

Whatever affection a girl may feel for her own family 
must receive a wrench on her marriage, for she is after that 
important event almost entirely lost to her own kin and 
transferred to that of her husband. In fact so far is this 
carried that, should her intended die, it is an act of virtue 
for the girl to leave her own people, and embosom herself in 
the bereaved household, there to live in subjection to the 
deceased's mother till death joins the couple whom the fates 
kept separate on earth. A women can never marry twice — 
legitimately, that is to say — a man falling in love with a 
widow, may take her as a concubine. A woman only once 



WOMAN, THE STATUS OF. 657 

rides in a red sedan, and only then if she is being married as 
a legal, that is a first, wife. 

A high type of virtue for a woman, in some parts of 
China, is to commit suicide on the death of her husband or 
intended ; in some cases the relatives force her to do it, 
in hopes of the eclat and the erection of a stone portal, 
which a representation of the case will probably cause the 
Government to sanction. Remaining a perpetual so-called widow 
without ever being married (in the event of her intended 
dying), is another strong recommendation for these monu- 
ments to virtue ! What wonder that in some places the girls 
band themselves together never to marry, and, to prevent 
being forced into matrimony, commit suicide ! 

The lower classes have more freedom of action in some 
respects ; that is to say, they are not confined to the house, 
but, as the exigencies of their life demand it, they go about 
in public to perform their duties : seamstresses sit at the 
street corners, repairing clothes ; farmers' wives assist in 
field operations ; servants go about the streets and make 
purchases ; domestic slave-girls run errands ; grass-cutters 
ramble up the hill sides to cut the grass for fodder or fuel ; 
villagers go from house to house of the big cities to gather 
pig's wash for food for these unsavoury quadrupeds ; 
scavengers busy themselves in the narrow streets and 
crowded thoroughfares, to the discomfort of the foot 
passengers ; tea girls pick tea, seated at the doors of the tea 
hongs; beggars go in troops, or singly, through the crowds; 
while the blind singing girls, with their duennas seek for 
hire; and the little sampans are manned by women and 
girls. 

But the employment of women in outdoor pursuits 
differs in different parts of the country ; in some places they 
are conspicuous by their absence, whilst in other places their 
engaging in labour, for which they are not so well fitted as 
man, renders their presence even more conspicuous. To one 
accustomed in Canton and neighbourhood to the constant 

3 u 



658 THINGS CHINESE. 



J 



presence of women in the fields and streets and on the river 
and sea, busy with various kinds of manual labour, it is 
strange to note their entire absence, with but trifling 
exceptions, in the country round Swatow. This also holds 
good to a great extent at Amoy. 

Books recommended. — ' The Status of Women in China,' ' The Famous 
Women of China,' two small pamphlets, both bj'^ Rev. E. Faber, Dr. Theol. 
'Typical Women of China ' \_Ab ridged f/om the Chinese Work ' Eecords of 
Virtuous Women of Ancient and Modern Times'] by Miss A. C. Safford. 
Also see an amusing Article in Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, Vol. 
XXVIII. pp. 10-18, entitled 'Chinese Women from a Chinese Standpoint,' 
by I. T. Headland. 

WRITING.— ks to the introduction of writing amongst 
the Chinese, it has been stated that : — 

' Chinese writers, unable to trace the gradual formation of their 
characters, (for of course, there could be no intelligible historical data 
until long after their formation) have ascribed them to Hwang-ti, one 
of their primeval monarchs, or even earlier, to Fuh-hi. A mythical 
personage, Tsang-kieh, who flourished about B.C. 2700, is credited 
with the invention of symbols to represent ideas, from noticing the 
markings on tortoise-shell, and thence imitating common objects in 
nature,' 

If the study of the origin of English words is interesting, 
that of Chinese is, if anything, more so. The mode of writing 
the character presents facilities for this study which are 
wanting in English. Here are hundreds and thousands of 
word pictures, some of them patent to the most casual glance, 
requiring scarcely a thought to elucidate them. 

The Chinese divide their language into six classes ; the 
first class, * imitative symbols ' includes 608 characters, 
amongst them are some of the first characters invented, but 
they have been modified by the exigencies of time and 
convenience in writing, the metal stylus having been replaced 
by the modern pencil, or brush, so that angular strokes have 
given place to curves, and circles to squares and oblongs, 
while parts of the original character have dropped out as the 
writing became more contracted. As a specimen of this 
class of character is the word for child, the rude picture 
having given way to the modern character -^j where the 
head; arms, and legs, in profile, are still visible, Again, the 



I 



WRITING. 659 

outline of three peaks, which was used to represent the idea 
of a hill, has been modified into the present form, ^]. Again, 
the rude picture of an eye has changed into an upright 
oblong with two strokes in the middle, viz., Q, and so we 
might go on at great length. 

The second class, which only contains 107 characters, is 
called 'symbols indicating thought.' These characters are 
formed by the combination of those of the previous 
class, for instance, the sun appearing above a line indicates 
the morning, as ^ . 

The third class contains 740 characters, called ' combined 
ideas.' These ideographs are built up of two or three of the 
other symbols : for instance, ' sun ' and ' moon ' are put in 
juxtaposition to represent brightness, as ^; a boy and a girl 
together represent the idea good, |0*: it is not good for man 
to be alone. 

The fifth class is called * uniting sound symbols', con- 
taining 21,810 characters ; nearly all words, it will thus be 
seen, belong to this class. They are formed of two distinct 
parts : one called the phonetic, giving the sound to the 
complex character thus formed, while the other component 
part of the character is ' formed of an imitative symbol/ as, 
for example, |^, a carp. 

The sixth class contains 598 characters, and is styled 
* borrowed uses,' including ' metaphoric symbols and com- 
binations, in which the meaning is deducted by a fanciful 
accommodation.' As an example of this class there is the 
word for character, word, or letters (literature), ^i, a child 
under a shelter — ' characters being considered as the well- 
nurtured offspring of hieroglyphics.' 

Besides this sixfold division there is likewise another 
sixfold division of Chinese characters, with respect not to 
their original formation but to their form, which may be 
compared to Roman, italic, or writing, German, Arabesque, 
and other forms used in English; for, though the correct 

3 F 2 



660 THINGS CHINESE. 

form of writing Chinese approaches very nearly to the 
printed form, more so than in English, yet there are, besides 
this somewhat easy style of writing, a flowing hand, which 
requires special study, and a still more running hand, which is 
undecipherable to those unfamiliar with it. These two 
latter styles allow latitude, as in English writing, for the 
idiosyncracies of the individual writer. In them, more 
especially in the latter of the two, contractions are largely 
availed of, the brush (Chinese pen) flies over the paper 
linking word to word somewhat in the style of shorthand 
writers in English. In short this running or ' grass writing ' 
may be likened in some degree to shorthand, though many 
of the Chinese characters, even in it, are too complicated to 
permit of a rapid enough writing to constitute it shorthand. 
Neither of these styles is allowed to be employed in the 
Government examinations, where every character must be 
well formed, and no contractions used ; but they are found 
necessary for business purposes. The books of large firms 
are kept most beautifully, very few contractions being used, 
but the ordinary business firms intersperse the more correct 
and formal characters with running forms to a greater or 
lesser extent. Scarcely any Europeans trouble themselves 
to learn thoroughly more than one style, if they even go as 
far as that. 

Chinese writing is largely employed for ornamental 
purposes. The caligraphy of masters of the art, for it is an 
art in China, is highly prized and commands a high price. 
Even the prosaic shop is ornamented with numerous scrolls, 
bearing poetical phrases, antithetical sentences, sometimes 
of high moral import, and even single words, beautifully 
engrossed, which line the bare brick walls, and are hung here 
and there. Fans are inscribed with poetic eff'asions and 
presented to friends, who treasure them as autographs. 
Some fine specimens of a fluent writer's skill are carved into 
the semi-cylindrical surface of a pair of nicely varnished 
bamboos and these form another embellishment for the 
mansions of the wealthy Chinese. The backs of combs, the 



WRITING. 661 

end pieces of folding fans, porcelain vases, and numerous 
other objects, are all adorned with specimens of caligraphic 
skill, and most effective this ornamentation is ; at times, the 
stiff, rigid forms of the seal character are employed ; and at 
other times the rambling style of the rapid writer, with 
its bold dashes, firm curves, slender, spider-like threads 
connecting distant parts, thick down strokes, and all the 
other elegancies which constitute the beauty of Chinese 
writing, so highly appreciated by Chinese connoisseurs. 

Chinese writing when written carefully, is slow work at 
the best : its speed is comparable to the engrossing of a legal 
document by a lawyer's clerk with us ; or again, one may 
liken the slow, laborious writing of the careful scribe to an 
attempt in English to write in print, while the rapid-running 
hand approaches nearer to our writing. 

Although Chinese is not an alphabetical language, the 
Chinese writing is composed of simple strokes and dots, 
perpendiculars and horizontals, modified according to certain 
rules, conditioned by the position in which they are to 
appear ; further, the more complex characters are built up of 
the simpler ones, some of the compound characters being 
formed of a combination of only two or three, while others 
may be the result of a union of half a dozen or more. A page 
of writing would present an unsymmetrical appearance were 
the original size of the component parts of the characters to 
be preserved. They are modified to suit their position — 
lengthened, shortened, compressed, enlarged, or diminished as 
necessary — the idea being that each character shall only 
occupy a given space. 

* The Chinese have the greatest respect for any writing and it no 
doubt enhances their contempt for us by noticing how we fail to 
reverence the written character, and, no doubt, they also fancy that we 
must indeed be barbarians and our writing not " that fairest jewel in 
heaven above or earth beneath " which theirs is, or we would doubt- 
less take the greatest care that not a scrap of it should fall to the 
ground and be trodden under foot, or torn, or destroyed in any way but 
by fire, when the extremely punctilious will also go as far as to bury 
them deep in the earth in a sealed earthern vessel, or sink them to 
the bottom of the river.' Men go about the streets gathering up 



662 THINGS CHINESE. 

every scrap of paper on which there is the least bit of writing or 
printing, so that they may be destroyed by fire at certain places 
prepared for that purpose. These chiffoniers are paid by rich men. 
Little boxes will also be seen here and there along the streets not 
only in Chinese cities but in Hongkong itself, with the four characters 
King sik tsz chi, Reverence printed (or written) paper on them. These 
boxes serve as receptacles into which the passers-by, or neighbours, 
may stuff their refuse paper. 

Boohs recomvxnded, — ' The Six Scripts.' A translation by L.C. Hopkins 
of H.M. Consular service. ' How to Write Chinese,' by the author of the 
present work. 

ZOOLOGY. —Though China is a well settled country, 
there are still vast tracts sparsely inhabited, and sufficiently 
different species of animals are found to make the study of 
zoology a pleasure, and the discovery every now and then of 
some new species lends a zest to its pursuit. 

The Fauna in the South, in the Island of Hainan and a 
portion of the mainland, is tropical to some extent ; but 
North China and Manchuria resemble, in their zoology, Corea 
and Japan. 

Of monkeys, there are several varieties, some of most 
remarkable appearance ; the Chinese train a few to perform 
tricks. Of bats, one list gives twenty species, belonging to 
nine genera. There are black and brown bears, as well as 
other varieties. The carnivora, though not such a pest as in 
India, are still common enough in some parts, and, in certain 
thickly-populated places, they are a cause of considerable 
apprehension to the natives. Amongst them may be men- 
tioned the tiger (See Article on 'Tigers') ranging over large 
districts in the southern provinces ; panthers, leopards, and 
tiger-cats are also not unknown. Wild cats are occasionally 
seen in Hongkong ; civet cats, tree-civets and martens, are 
found in China. The domestic cat is very common, a species 
of Angora cat being a pet in Peking. As to the dog, a glance 
at it reminds one of the pictures of Esquimaux dogs. These 
are known as ' chow ' dogs, or 'wouks,' amongst foreigners, 
looking very pretty when pups Avith their fluffy, yellow, 
black, or reddish hair, but they deteriorate in appearance as 
they grow older, though this does not appear to be a general 



ZOOLOGY. ^ 

opinion, as they are sometimes made pets of by foreigners. 
Strange to say the tongues and mouths of dogs and cats are 
often black or blue-black (See Article on Dogs). Wolves, 
foxes, and racoon-dogs are common. The Chinese horses 
are ponies and the cattle are also small ; some of the latter 
have a hump. The water-buffalo is an uncouth, large, 
clumsy-looking animal, and is used for drawing the plough, 
as well as for other agricultural purposes, the milk supplied 
by the buffalo cow is richer than common cow's milk. The 
black tongue and mouth are also found in buffaloes. (See 
Article on the 'Buffalo.') Yaks are found in Tibet and Kokonor. 
Sheep abound in the North, and goats all over China. Antelopes 
and deer of eleven varieties are known — deer are kept in gentle- 
men's grounds in China as well as in England — and many other 
genera of ruminants are included in China's fauna. Three 
varieties of the musk deer may be mentioned. Mules and 
donkeys are largely used in the North as beasts of burden, 
and the Avild ass, or onager, is to be found in Kokonor. 
The elephant, rhinoceros, and tapir, are to be met with in 
the forests of Yunnan ; the wild boar in the North and in 
Chekiang. Different varieties of pigs abound in the North 
and South, and pork is largely consumed by the Chinese. 
The camel is also a beast of burden in Manchuria, Mongolia, 
and Northern China. Among smaller animals may be men- 
tioned weasels, otters (used for fishing, for which purpose 
they are trained) badgers, sable-ermine, pole-cats, stoats, sea- 
otters, moles, musk-rats, shrew mice, hedgehogs, marmots, 
and mole-rats. 

There are many kinds of rodents. Hares and rabbits 
abound in some places, but are almost, if not entirely, 
unknown in others. There are ten or twelve kinds of 
squirrels known, as well as two genera of flying squirrels. 
Twenty-five species of rats and mice are known as existing 
in China, and all but three are peculiar to the country. One 
species has been named after Confucius (mus Confucianus), 
an honour which probably the sage would not appreciate 
were he aware of it, while another has been named after 



664, THINGS CHINESE. 

Koxinga, the conqueror of Formosa. The procupine is 
supposed by the Chinese to use its quills as javelins to fling 
at its enemies, while the scaly ant-eater, or pangolin, is thus 
described by one sapient (!) Chinese writer: — 'Its shape 
resembles a crocodile ; it can go in dry paths as well as in 
the water; it has four legs. In the day time it ascends the 
banks of streams, and, lying down, opens its scales wide, 
putting on the appearance of death, which induces the ants 
to enter between them; as soon as they are in, the animal 
closes its scales and returns to the water to open them : the 
ants float cut dead, and he devours them at leisure/ 

The great, white propoise (DelpJiinus cMnensis) is found 
in the estuary of the Canton river, and at Swatow, as well 
as in the Yangtsz. It is an amusing sight to watch one or 
two of them swimming for an hour or more just in front of a 
steamer. A species of fin-whale is found between Formosa 
and Hainan. Seals disport themselves on the coast of Liang- 
tung. 

The lists of Swinhoe and David contain two hundred 
species of mammalia; many more have been discovered since 
these lists were drawn up. 

Of birds there have already been over 700 species 
described. (* The avifauna of the Yang-tsz Valley comprises, 
at least, * * * 359 species, of which 97 species are 
known to be migrant') . Vultures, eagles, and ernes are wide- 
spread ; the golden eagle is trained by the Mongols for the 
chase ; falcons are common in the streets of Peking where 
they act as scavengers. Bustards, gledes, sparrow-hawks, 
night-hawks, and swallows, are all to be seen, of the latter bird 
there are fifteen species. The feathers of kingfishers are used 
for decorative purposes. The hoopoe, bee-eater and cuckoo 
are all known, as well as eleven species of shrikes and many 
other birds, such as nuthatches, tree and wall-creepers, wrens, 
chats, willow-wrens, and red-starts. There are great varieties 
of song-birds, such as the thrush and lark, of which the 
Chinese are very fond ; for a Mongolian lark twenty-five 



ZOOLOGY. 665 

dollars will be given. (See Article on * Larks and other 
Songsters '). Amongst other birds may be named wag- 
tails, orioles, jays (a most beautiful blue jay is found m 
Hongkong), magpies, choughs, crows, blackbirds, owls, 
mainahs, (See Article on ' Larks and other Songsters ') 
robins, ouzels, tailor-birds, woodpeckers, parrots, 14 
species of pigeons, gold and silver pheasants, and others, 
and poultry, of which the common fowl, the Shanghai and 
the diminutive white bantam are the best knoAvn. Some of 
the Chinese fowls appear to have black bones, owing to a 
thin membrane of that colour surrounding the bones. 
Besides these are grouse, quails, francolins, partridges, snipe, 
cranes, plovers, curlews, herons, egrets, ibis, spoonbills 
crakes, and rails. ' The Chinese ring-necked species of phea- 
sant has been successfully introduced' into England. Sixty- 
five species of web-footed birds are known as existing in China,, 
amongst which are ten species of duck. The whole sea-coast 
is alive with gulls, terns, and grebes ; and swans, geese, and 
mallards are found in the inland waters. The mandarin 
duck, a native of the central provinces, is a beautiful object 
having as brilliant a plumage as a parrot. 

Alligators, though rare, are to be found in one or two 
spots, and probably they, or crocodiles, were more numerous 
formerly than now. Snakes abound, many of which are 
deadly. Frogs are most abundant and are eaten. Tortoises 
and turtles are plentiful. * The ichthyology of China is one 
of the richest in the world, though it may be so more from 
the greater proportion of food furnished by the waters than 
from any real superabundance of the finny tribes.' By this 
time about a thousand different kinds are known as being 
found in China. It is said that in Macao one may have a 
different kind of fish for breakfast every morning in the year 
if one will eat every sort which the Chinese use as food. 
Amongst Chinese fish may be mentioned mackerel, goby, 
herrings, sharks, rays, saw-fish, sturgeon, huge skates, 
garoupa, sole, mullet, the white rice fish (or silver fish as it 
is called in some of the languages of China), shad, and carp 

3 I 



666 THINGS CHINESE. 

(52 species of the last). The gold fish is a most grotesque 
specimen of nature's caricatures, imitated and/or fostered 
by artifice and selection, the eyes are like goggles, sticking 
out of its head, and tail and fins are tufted and lobed to a 
most extraordinary extent. ' Gold fish were first known in 
China ; they were * brought to Europe in the seventeenth 
century.' The Chinese say their original habitat was Lake 
Tsau in the province of Ngan-hwui. Another variety is the 
silver fish. We cannot complete the list of Chinese fish, but 
we may mention pipe-fish of a red colour, gar-pike with 
green bones, beautiful parrot-fish, sun-fish, eels, file-fish, bream, 
gudgeon, anchovies, perch, and gurnard. There are great 
varieties of shell-fish, oysters are common, so are prawns, 
shrimps, crabs, craw-fish, and king-crabs, the last strange 
looking objects. Amongst curiosities, may be mentioned the 
hammer oyster (Avicula \nialleus\ vulgaris) found at 
Swatow. 

'The insects of China are almost unknown to the 
naturalist.' There are hundreds of difierent kinds of spiders, 
some with bodies as large as small birds, which spin their 
webs from tree to tree, high up in the air. Locusts, 
centipedes, scorpions, silkworms, fireflies, glow-worms, and 
beetles ; and many other numerous species of insects have 
their home in China. 

Books recommended. — Williams's ' Middle Kingdom,' Vol. I., p. 313 — 
3o4, contains a good, general, short account of the zoology of China. Also 
see Article in this book on ' Tigers ' as well as that on ' Buffaloes.' For birds 
see ' Proceedings of the Zoological Societj'-' for May 1871, which contains 
a paper by the late Mr. Swinhoe ; 'Les Oiseaux de la Chine,' par M. I'Abb6 
A. David. Also see Articles in this book on ' Larks and other Songsters,* 
* Cormorant Fishing ' and end of Article on 'Mandarin.' For fishes see 
' Report of the British Association for the Adrancement of Science ' for 
1845. For insects see Donovan's ' Natural History of the Insects of China.* 
Also see Articles on ' Insect's' and ' Silk' in this book. 



IND Jb]X 



^-^.^ 



A 


American flour, 627. 


Abacus, 1. 


„ kerosene, 627. 


Abatement, 3. 


,, river steamers, 493. 


Aborigines, 4, 28, 153, 267, 279, 292, 


„ stamps, 560. 


S19, 503. 


„ trade, 249, 620. 


Accessories to the Stage, 601. 


Americans in China, 158, 249. 


Accountant, 1, 2. 


Amoor, 353, 354. 


Account-books, 65, 615. 


Amov, 10, 34, 123, 142. 166, 167, 


Accounts, 155. 


172, 173, 188, 193, 234, 240, 243, 


Actors, 601, 602, 604. 


251, 262, 263, 319, 406, 420, 515, 


Acts, Five, 603. 


520, 521, 563, 594, 595, 596, 604^ 


Acupuncture, 7, 


605, 612, 622, 626, 627, 629, 632, 


Administrative powers, 135. 


658. 


Adoption, 8,26, 175, 581. . 


Amoy, Books for learning, 88. 


Adulterations, Trade, 626. 


Amsterdam, 611, 


Adultery, 176. 


Amusements, &c., 22-25, 78, 113, 


Africa, Chinese in, 129. 


114, 138, 185-186, 199, 204-207, 


Africa, South, 308. 


233, 238-240, 240-243, 246, 247, 


Agate, 610. 


250, 254, 255, 280, 322-324, 347, 


Age, Enquiries as to, 215. 


348, 360, 362, 363, 366, 391-396, 


Agnates, 9, 10. 


425, 457-470, 492, 494-499, 521- 


Agriculture, 2, 91, 341, 658, 663. 


523, 600-604, 658. 


„ Government fosters, 13. 


Anamba Islands, Chinese in, 126. 


„ Implements of, 16, 17, 


Anatomy, Ignorance of, 49. 


64, 65. 


Ancestor, A son's deeds ennoble, 618. 


„ Importance of. 13, 


Ancestral Hall, 8, 139, 256, 266, 


A-he-qua. 648. 


362, 393. 


Alaska, 306. 


„ Tablet, 27, 28. 


Albasines, 648. 


„ Worship, 25, 74. 75, 76, 


Alchemy, 579, 582. 


139, 238, 265, 359, 363, 


Alienation of land, 599. 


393, 473, 613. 


Alligators, 665. 


,, Worship is the National 


Allodial property, No, 599. 


Ee'.igion, 26. 


Alluvial land, 260, 600. 


Ancient art, 50. 


Almond, 241. 


„ beliefs, 95. 


Alpinia galangas, 268. 


,, bronze work, 96. 


Alps, 306. 


„ history, 277, 499. 


Altar cloths, 205. 


„ missions, 370. 


Ambassadors, 61, 62, 63. 


„ music, 391, 392. 


Amber, 610. 


„ Philosopher, The, 574. 


America, Chinese in, 118. 


style, 320. 


„ Cultivation of tea in, 590. 


Anhui, See Nganhwui. 


„ South, 306. 


Aniline dyes, 625. 


„ Tonnage of, to China, 625. 


Animals 620. 


American concessions, 634. 


Annam, 640. 


„ consumption of tea, 591, 


„ Chinese in, 121, 122. 


594, 595, 597. 


Answers to questions, 215. 



INDEX. 



Ant-eater, rt64. 




Azalea, 589, 


Antigua, Chinese in, 119. 






Anti-opium pills, See Opium. 




B 


Antipodes, Chinese our, 613. 






Antiquities, 499. 




B. A., 225. 


Antiquity, Love of, 137. 




Babies, 111-114,296-298. 


„ ' of Art, 50. 




Babv-clothes, 74, 75. 


Antithetical Sentences, 23, 200, 


660. 


Baby-towers, 298. 


'Ants, 300, 453. 




Babylon, 314. 


^Ants, White, 299, 1500. 




Back, Carrying on the, 616. 


Antwerp 611. 




Baldacchino, 163. 


Apelles, 57. 




Ballad singing. 24, 393. 


Apples, 253. 




Balls, Ivory, 107. 


Arab traders, 118, 248, 379. 




'Bamboo, 11, 12, .32, 54, 63-66, 91, 


Arabian art, 97. 




94, 106, 239, 308, 600, 609, 610, 


„ trade, 155. 




660. 


Arbours, 29. 




Bamboo-sprouts, 63. 


Arbutus, 253. 




Band for the head, 190. 


Arch, 35, 36. 




Bangles, 274, 305. 


Arch of steel, 551. 




Bank-notes, 67-69, 155. 


Arches, Commemorative, 36, 65 


7. 


Banks, 67-69, 427. 


Archery 23, 44. 




Bankruptcies, 270. 


Architecture, 29-36. 




Banners, The Eight, 39, 205. 


Argentan, 610, 




Bantams, 665. 


Arhan, 412. 




Barber, 387, 604. 


Arithmetic, 1, 201. 




Bargaining, 1, 3, 136. 


--Arms, 36-39, 41. 




Barometer readings in a typhoon. 


Army, 39-46, 162, 293. 




640, 641. 


Army, Ever Victorious, 45, 555. 




Bats, 662. 


Arrows, 37, 41. 




.Battledore, 522, 616. 


Arsenals, 293. 403, 405. 




Batura,162. 


Art, 47-58, 66, 68. 205. 206, 207, 


235, 


Bays, 259. 


347. 




Beacons, 426. 


„ of writing, 658-666. 




Beads, 615. 


Artificial flowers, 243. 




Beans and bean flour, 650. 


Ascending on High, 23, 58-59. 




Beard, 615. 


Asceticism, 579. 




Bears, 662. 


Asia, 620, 637 ; Minor, 306. 




Beckoning, 220. 


Asiatic Society, China Branch of the 


Beef. 650. 


Eoyal, 59-60, 84. 




Beetles, 298, 302, 666. 


Assam tea, 585, 589. 




Beggar spirits, 27. 


Associations, Money Loan, 536 


548. 


Beggars, 65, 78, 212, 303, 365-369, 


Astronomical Instruments at 


Pe- 


566, 567, 649, 657. 


king, 97. 




Belgians in China, 158, 249. 


Astronomy, 346, 570, 571. 




Belles lettres, 20u, 342, 349. 


Asylums, 335. 




Bells, 394. 


Atlas moth, 302. 




Benares opium, 622. 


Audience, 60-63. 




Bequests for Ancestral Worship, 29. 


„ Hall, 62. 




•Betrothal. 69-72, 473. 


Australia, 305. 




Bible in China, 371, 374, 375. 


„ Chinese in, 126-128, 


339. 


Bibliography, 72-73, 345. 


„ Consumption of tea 


in. 


Billingsgate, 212, 345. 


596, 597. 




Bird of Fate, The. 460. 


„ Tea in, 594. 




Birds, 664-665. 


Austrians in China, 158, 249. 




•Birds' nests, 73-74, 245, 247, 650. 


Autographs, 660, 




-Birth, Customs connected with, 


Au To-huan, 53. 




74-77. 



INDEX. 



it! 



Birthday of Gods, 12, 22. 600. 
Black, 571, 616. 

„ art, 582. 

„ bones of fowls, 665. 

„ death, 45-1. 

„ eyes. 130. 

„ haired race 116, 130. 

„ iiioutlis and tonijues of dogs, 
bu Haloes, and cats, ()63, 
and of fowls 6()5. 
„ plau;ne and death, 433, 434, 
435. 

„ porcelain, 488 

„ silk, 526. 

„ slaves, 535. 

„ tea, 583-597, 624. 

,, tongues of animals, 663. 

„ wood, 107, 255. 
Blanc de Chine, 475. 
Blessing, The Five, 411. 
Blest, The Golden Isles of the, 578, 
Blind, 15, 64, 366, 368, 393, 667. 

„ singing grirls, 24, 393, 657. 
Blockade chess. 111. 
Blocks for printing: 499. 500, 501. 
Blood, Drinking, 382. 
Blue for mourning, 387, 61G. 

„ plume, 161. 

„ porcelain 480, 481, 488, 489. 
Boards, The Six. 271. 
Boats, 22. 32, 49, 64, 77-81, 106, 112, 
212,336,520,616,619,657, 
658. 

„ manned by women, 616. 
Boat-men. 246, 630. 

„ people,28, 80, 190, 363. 

„ racing 22, 186. 

„ women, 212. 
Boccaro, 481. 
Bodleian, 307. 
Bogue forts, 41, 43. 
Bohea, 586. 
Boles of trees, 107. 
Bombay, 452. 453, 454. 
Book name, 397. 

„ of Rewards and Punishments, 
580. 

„ of Secret Blessings, 580. 

„ style, 320, 321. 
Books, 81-87, 88-91 342-351, 376, 
411,578,575,576,580,614, 
615. 

„ Business, 660. 

„ Difference between English 
and Chinese, 614, 615. 

„ Destruction of the, 283. 

„ for learning Chinese, 88-91. 



Books on China 81-87. 

Printing of, 499-501. 
The Four. 343, 411. 
Boots, 189, 191, 656. 
Borneo, (Chinese in, 125. 
„ Tea in, 589, 590. 
Borrowing- money by Association, 

536-548. 
Borrowed uses, 659. 
Botanical works, 49, 94, 95. 
Botany, 49, 91-95. 
Bowing, 49, 214. 
Bows, 37, 214, 221. 
Bows and arrows, 37, 41. 
Boy, The Old, 574. 
Boys, 8-12, 111-114, 197-204, 211, 
521, 534, 653, 654. 
„ Esteem in which, are held, 22, 
Bracelets, 615. 
Braves, 40. 
Brazil, 306. 

Brazilians in China, 249. 
Breach-loaders, 38, 42. 
Brest-summer, 33. 
Brethren of the Pear Orchard, 602. 
Bribery, 28, 158, 327, 328, 334, 384, 

599. 
Brick tea, 587, 588, 
Bricks, 30. 
Bridal chair, 360, 361, 363, 364. 

„ song, 459. 
Bride crying, 614. 

Bridge, 30. 35, 65, 78, 254, 255, 283. 
Bristles, 626. 
British concessions, 634. 

„ consumption of tea, 596. 
,, Columbia, 306. 
,, Columbia, Chinese in, 119 
„ Guiana, ,, ,, 119, 

120. 
„ in China, 158, 249, 415. 
„ Museum, 5.3, 67, 307. 
., railways in China, 507, 512. 
,, zone of influence, 635. 
Broken silver, 155. 
Bronze, 95-97. 
Brush for writing, 50, 658. 
Buckwheat, 650. 

Buddhi>m, 51, .53, .54, 85, 96, 97-102, 
108, IKi, 153, 182, 254, 265, 284, 
316.317,318,320, 348. 354, 365, 
37i; 380, 385, 394, 424. 478, 513, 
553, 558, 565, 574, 577, 578, 579, 
580, 582, 613. 
Buddhist Sects, 513, 514. 
Buddhistic School of Art, 51, 53, 54, 
57, 96, 97. 

a 2 



iv 



INDEX. 



Buffalo, Water, 16, 102-103, 440, 

663. 
Bugle call, 41. 
Bugs, 304, 316. 
Burglars, 428. 

Burmah, 6, 98, 121, 288, 292, 306, 
413, 597, 598. 

„ Chinese in, 121. 

Frontier Treaty, 630. 
Burmo-China Railway, 512. 
Business men. 136. 

„ name, 399, 400. 

„ style, 321. 
Butterflies, 302. 
Buttons, 225, 358. 387, 615. 
Buying water for the dead, 388. 



O 



Cabinet, 271. 

Cages, 323, 324. 

Calls, Official, 219. 

Cambodia, Chinese in, 122. 

Camel, 663. 

Camellias, 242, 584. 

Cameos, 610. 
, Camphor, 103-104. 

Camps, 40. 

Canada, Chinese in, 119. 

Canals, 8, 282, 520. 619. 
< Canarjs 324. 

Candarin, 155. 

Candida, 373. 

Cangue, 332, 561. 

Cannon, Early use of, 38, 286. 

Canton, 30, 31. 33, 34, 72, 84, 117, 
123, 142, 147, 152, 166, 192, 193, 
194,203,206, 227,230, 243, 251, 259, 
262, 266, 295, 298, 330, 363, 369, 
379, 380, 407, 436, 439, 405, 425, 
452, 527, 549, 596, 597, 601, 619, 
622, 625, 627, 628, 629, 630, 631, 
640, 641, 647, 648, 649. 650, 651. 

Canton Flotilla, 404, 405, 658. 
„ Kaulung Railway, 506. 

„ Railway, 506, 508. 
„ River, 258, 262, 340, 

455, 520, 664. 

Cantonese, 123, 124, 167, 170, 171, 
273, 305, 319, 420. 
„ Books for learning 88. 

Capabilities of Chinese as soldiers, 
45, 46,. 

Capital cities, 104-106, 259. 

„ punishment, 552, 555, 568. 

Capping of verses, 23, 469. 



Caps, 190, 191, 204, 213, 216, 387, 

616. 
Carambola, 253. 
Caravan tea, 587, 628. 
Caravans, 379. 
Cardinal points, 411. 
Cards, 23, 24, 494, 498, 499, 
Carelessness, 626. 
Carnivora, 662. 

Carpenter sits to work, 617, 618, 
Carriage, Cost of land, 503. 
Carriers, 619. 
Carrying poles, 619. 
Cart, 649. 

Carved lacquer, 313. 
Carving, 33. 36, 106-108. 
Cash. 67, 154. 
Cathay, 115. 248, 435. 
Cats, 243, 244. 662-663. 
Cats' flesh, 243. 
Caucasus, Tea in the, 590. 
Causes of typhoons, 637. 
Cave dwellings, 35. 
Ceilings, 31. 34. 35. 
Celadon, 479, 480, 485, 486. 
Celestial Empire, 115. 
Celibates, 579. 
Celts, 499. 
Censorate. 271. 
Census, 470-473. 

Ceremonial observances, 144, 238. 
Ceylon, 308. 

,, Chinese in, 120. 

„ tea, 589, 590, 591, 592, 593, 
594, 595, 596. 
' Chaff,' 654. 
Ch^i-mui, 250. 
Chair, 255. 

„ coolies, 295. 
Chak-'t-in-kau, 498. 
Chance, Games of, 494-498. 
Chancellor, Imperial. 224. 
Chancius, 429. 

Chang Liang's flute, 469, 470. 
Chang Ngo, 571. 
Chang Sang-yiu, 51. 
Channels, 259. 
Chao Chau fu, 147, 229, 298, 338, 

629. 
Characters, Divisions of, 659-660. 
Characteristics of a Chinese sage, 
45, 574. 

„ Chinese, 3, 4, 116, 117, 129-139, 
516. 

„ Mongol, 383, 384. 
Charlatanism, 574. 
Charms, 164, 576, 578, 580. 



INDEX. 



Chastitv, 134, 17(5. 




Civil Service, Admission into, 224- 


Chau, Duke of, 2S0. 




229. 


„ dynastv, 2(12, 273, 280, 


281, 


Civilisers, 620. 


294, 41.5, 529, 563, 




Clans, 21, 139-140, 599. 


Chau Kiing. 280. 




Clarionets, 394. 


„ Sin, 280. 




Classical style, 320. 


Chefoo, 563, 626, 629, 632. 




Climate, 20, 35, 140-144. 


„ Climate of, 141. 




Right, for tea, 584. 


„ Convention, 629, 630. 




Clocks, 60(;, 608. 


Ch'en porcelain, 477. 




Clogs, 191. 


Ch'eng chung fii, 55. 




Clothing, 112, 186-193, 616. 


Cheques 67. 




Coal, 262, 264, 503, 623. 


Cherries, 650. 




Coalbeds and coalfields, 264, 502, 


Chess. 23, 10«-111. 




Coast formation, 262. 


Chihli, 415, 472, 505, 630. 




,. trade 621, 


Chikiang, 123, 629, 632, 663. 




Coats, 188. 


Children, 22-25, 111-114, 123. 


197- 


Cobalt decorations under glaze, 475. 


202, 231. 236-238, 296-298, 


387, 


Cochin-China, 589. 


521-523. .530-535. 




,, Chinese in 122. 


Chile, Chinese in, 120. 




„ Tea in, 589. 


China, 114-116. 




-Cockroaches, 300, 301. 


„ Proper 257. 




Cocks, 364, 553, 650. 


„ Sea, 259. 




Cocoons 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 624. 


Chinanfii, 105. 




Coffins and coffin boards, 153, 265, 


China's Sorrow 260. 




614. 


Chinaware, 87, 182-184,473-495 


,523, 


Cognates. 9. 


626. 632. 




Coins, 74. 


Chinese abroad, 78, 116-129, 274. ' 


Collar, 189. 


„ matches 627. 




Collegiate course, 201. 


„ people, Characteristics of, 3.| 


Collo(iuial. 315, 321. 


4, 116, 117, 129-139. 




Colombo, 117, 


„ postage stamps, 493, 


494, 


Colonial possessions, 257, 597, 635. 


562. 




Colour blindness, 131. 


Ching-hwa, 481, 482. 




Colonies 257, 597, 635. 


Ching-te-chen or King-teh 


chin. 


Colour and form, Masterly hand- 


476, 478, 626. 




ling of, 476. 


Chinkiang, 415, 524, 622, 631. 




Colours, The Five 412, 571. 


Chinnery, George, 56. 




Colouring, 49, 55.* 


Chivalry, Want of 654. 




Combined ideas, 659. 


Chong- Jen ? 54. 




Combs, 660. ^^ 


Chong-viin-ch'au, 498. 




.Comedies, 602, 803. ^— ^"^ 


Chopsticks 65, 218, 245, 386, 5 


56. 


Compass, 117, 118, 266, 606, 616, 


Chow dogs. 179. 180, 181, 474. 


662, 


Competition f>f Japanese manufac- 


663. 




turers, 627. 


„ dynasty, 108, 279, 280, 




Composition. 200. 


Chrysalides as food, 525. 




„ of Chinese characters, 661 . 


Chrysanthemums. 242, 243. 




Conces.sions at treaty ports, 632, 634. 


C^hiin porcelain, 479. 




,, for mines and railvvays, 


Chungking, 415, 563, 626, 630, 


632. 


507—512. 


,, Convention, 629. 




Concubinage, 26, 72, 175, 176, 364, 


Ch'ung Yong festival, 59. 




653-6.58. 


Chwang-tsz, 429, 577. 




Confucian temple, 146, 147, 380. 


Cicada, 301, 302. 




Confucianism 97, 98, 144-147, 577, 


Cigarettes, 610. 




578, 579, 582, 655, 663. 


Cigars, 'Hnw, made from old, 611. 


Confucius. 144-147, 270, 278, 280, 


Cities, 259, 412, 418, 632. 




281, 338, 341, 342. 343, 391, 393, 402, 


Civil Service, 357-359. 




410, 572, 573, 574, 576, 578, 582.- 



TO 



INDEX. 



Congee, 514. 


Custard apples, 253. 


Contyou, 586 


Customs, I. M., 157-159, 340, 406, 


Congratulations at examinations, 


493, 561, 562. 621-629, 631, 6.50, 


226. 


651. 


Connaug-ht, Duke of 246. 


Customs' Post, 157, 493, 494, 561, 


Conquest, The Mongol, 54. 


■ 562, 621-629. 


Conservatism, 228. 


Customs of Monsfols, 384. 


Constabulary, Local, 40. 


Cycle, 159, 278, 607. 


Constellations 571. 


Cyclones, 636-641. 


Consuls, 222, 230. 


Cyclopgsdias, 347. 


Consumption of tea, 596, 597. 


Cymbals, 394, 602. 


Contempt, 222. 


Czarewitch, 62. 


Contrarieties, 521, 522. 




Converts S76-378. 


D 


Coolie, 188. 




,, Street, 611. 


Dagger, 36. 


Coolie's pipe 610. 


Dahlias, 242. 


Copper. 610. 


Damascene Work, 97. 


Corea, 285. 598, 621, 637. 


Danes in China, 158, 249. 


,, Chinese in, 126. 


Dangers of Inoculation, 643. 


Cormorants, 147-149. 


Danish Great Northern Telegraph 


Coroner, 566. 


Co., 598. 


Corps Diplomatique, 60. 


Darjeeling, Tea in, 595. 


Corruption, 28, 135, 272, 384. 


Dates, G09, 617. 


Cosmeties, 149, 362, 625. 


Daughters, 26, 305, 614. 


Cosmogony, 99, 277. 


Days of grace, 541. 


Cotton, 14, 91, 149-153, 622, 623, 


Debt slavery, 531. 


628. 


Decadence of art, 55, 56. 


„ mills, 151-152, 293. « 


Decades, 608. 


„ tree, 152-158. 


Decapitation, 552, 555, 568, 


Councils of State, 271. 


Decentralisation, 42. 


Counter, 33, 495. 


Decimal system, 278, 561, 562. 


Counting-room, 33. 


Decline in China tea trade, 590, 595, 


Country of gentlemen, 4. 


596, 627, 628. 


Couriers, 492, 493. 


-Decorations, 32, 34, 159-163, 664. 


Courtesans, 309, 393, 654. 


Decrees against tobacco, 609. 


Court yards, 31. 


Deeds, White and Eed, 599, 600. 


Courts, 359. 


Deer, 521, 663. 


,, of Appeal, 271, 332. 


Deforestation, 143, 260. 


Cows, 440. 


Degrees of mourning, 387, 388. 


Crackled porcelain, 479, 480, 484, 


Deluge, The Great, 278. 


486, 487. 


•Demoniacal possession, 163-165. 


Credulity of Chinese, 133, 517. 


Demons, 163-165. 439, 455, 456. 


Cremation, 28, 153-154. 


Density of population, 471, 472. 


Criminal classes, Punishment of the. 


Destruction of the books, 283 316, 


270. 


341, 346, 392. , 


Crocodiles, 665. 


Devil dancers, 165. 


Cross-bows, 38. 


Diagrams, The Eight, 428. 


Crow feathers, 161. 


Dialects, 106, 166-175, 248, 274. 


Crown lands, 599, 600. 


Dice, 497-498. 


Cruelty, 279, 533, 535. 


Dictionary, 316, 317, 615. 


Cuba, Chinese in, 119. 


Diet, 650. 


Cultivation of tobacco, 611, 612. 


Dinners, Chinese, 246, 544, 545. 


Cupola, 36. 


Disciples of Confucius, 145, 147. 


Curing tea, 586, 587. 


Diseases due to heat or cold, 642. 


Currency, 154-156. • 


Disowned by the Clan, 140. 


Cuvtain, 601, 


Disregard of time, 606, 



INDEX. 



Dissipation of Sorrows, The, 401. 


E 




Disturbances incident to typhoons, 






640. 


Eagles, Golden, 664. 




Divination, 341, .347. 


Earrings, 191, 192, 274, 305. 




Divine lionours to Confucius, 140. 


JOarthenware money-box, 545. 




„ right of kings, 270. 


/Earthquakes, 193-19(!. 




Divining blocl^s and sticks, 64. 


East Africa, Chinese in, 129. 




Divisions of the watch, 609. 


East India Companj', 645, 646, 


650. 


*■ Divorce, 175-177. 


East Indian Islands, 610. 




Doctors, 177-178, 641, (J46-653. 


East River, 604. 




Dog swallowing the sun or moon, 


Eastern Chinese Railway system in 


572. 


Manchuria, 507. 




Dogs, 45, 179-181, 243, 244, 602- 


Eating houses, 106, 




663. 


Edict, The Sacred, 345. 




Dollars, 155. 


Education, 136, 157, 197-204. 




Dome, 36. 


Eggs and Red Eggs, 76, 244, 


626, 


Domestic slaverj% 531-534. 


650. 




„ trade, 619, 620, 629. 


Eggshell porcelain, 490. 




Dominoes, 494, 498. 


Egrets, 624. 




Donkeys, 663. 


Egyptians, 250, 




Doors, 30. 


Eight Genii, 107. 




Drafts, 67. 


Eighteen provinces, 257. 




Draftsmen, 47. 


Elements, The Five, 411. 




^Dragon, 34. 51, 181-185, 205. 266, 


Elephantiasis, 304. 




561, 580, 586. 


Eleuths, 291. 




Dragon-boats, 22, 185-186, 461. 


Elixir of Immortality, 572, 576, 


578, 


„ The Green 266, 606. 


579, 582. 




„ The Order of the Double, 


Embroidery, 204-207, 054. 




160. 


Emigratfon, 17. 116-129, 533. 




Drama, 349, 600-604. 


Emperor, 00. 61, 62, 140, 181, 


204, 


Historj' of the, 603, 604. 


211, 220, 229, 237, 256, 257, 


209, 


Dream of the lied Chamber, 348. 


270-273,317, 380, 387, 392, 


401, 


Dress, 6, 186-193, 204-207, 213, 


402, 410, 413. 




216, 217, 220, 274, 29.5. 602, 615, 


Empress, 523. 




616. 


Empress Dowager, 60, 204. 




Dress-suit, 191. 


Enamelled Ware, 476. 




Drink, 427. 


Encroachments of the sea, 261 




Drinking tea, 219. 


England, En-rlish, and Great Britain, 


Drowning, 568. 


249, 257, 293, 629. 




Drum, 41, 609. 


English from Chinese pens, 


208- 


Drunkards, 42, 71. 


212. 




Dual principles, 429. 


„ Railways, or English sy 


stem 


Duck, Mandarin, 359, 665. 


of Railways, 507. 




,. Receipt for cooking, 248. 


Eidvvanthus reticulatus, 241, 




Duennas, 657. 


Enquiries as to age, 215, 614. 




Dunning, 215. 


Entail, None in China, 599. 




Dutch consumption of tea, 596. 


Entering a room, 214. 




„ East Indies, Chinese in the. 


Enterprising, 619. 




125, 126. 


Epidemics, 432-457, 641. 




„ in China, 158, 249, 291, 320. 


Equity, 544. 




„ in Formosa, 291. 


Essayists, 347. 




Dwarfing plants. -Ml, 242. 


Essays, 85. 201, 224-229, 321. 




Dj es, 625. 'M 


Estates. The Four, 12. 




Dynasties, 612. ^ 


•Etiquette. 212-222, 653, 654. 




„ The Five, 287. 


Eunuchs, 281, 286, 290. 
•Eurasians, 222-223. 
Europe, Trade with, 620, 





Vlll 



INDfil. 



European matchea, 627. 


Firing tea 586, 587. 




Ever Victorious Army, The, 45, 550. 


Fish, 245, 246, 650, 665. 




Everlasting life, 572. 


„ A crop of, 19. 




Evil spirits, 10, 163-165, 239. 


Fisherman, Swatow, 188, 




Evils of morphia taking, 419-421. 


Fishing with cormorants, 147-149, 


„ „ opium smoking, 417-421. 


„ with otters, 663, 




Examination Hall, 224, 227. 


Fishmaws, 245, 




Examinations, 201, 224-229, 284, 


Five clawed dragon, 182, 




321. 424, 425, 469, 495, 


„ coloured porcelain. 481, 


482, 


497, 579, 660. 


488, 490, 491. ' 




„ Military, 23, 44, 45. 


„ Dynasties, 294. 




„ Naval, 44, 45. 


Flag, 183. 




Excelsior, 209, 431, 432. 


„ Yellow, Order of the, 163. 


Exorcism, 576. 


Flails, 17. 




Extent of Chinese Empire, 256-258. 


Flambe porcelain, 485, 486, 490, 


491. 


Exterritoriality, 229-231. 


Fleas, 304. 
Flies, 304, 




F 


Floods, 471, 620. 
Flora, 91-95, 254-255. 




Fairy tales, 165, 231. 


Flour, American, 623, 627. 




Falcons, 664. 


Flower baskets 241, 




Family, The, the unit of society, 139, 


„ beds. 254. 




140,359, 581,599. 


„ boats, 106, 




Famines, 471. 


„ gardens, 23, 254-255, 




Fangyen, 316. 


Flowers, 31, 54, 91-95, 205, 240-243, 


Fans, 23, 232-236, 556, 660, 661. 


254-255 285, 289, 




Fantan, 495. 


„ used to scent tea, 589, 




Farces, 602. 


Flowery names, 398. 




Fares on railways, 505. 


Flowing hand, 660. 




Farmhouse, 21. 


Flutes, 394. 




Farmers' vpives, 657. 


Fokien, See Fuhkien. 




Farms. 17, 18, 21. 


Fong, General and Admii-al, 163. 


Fashion, 192. 


Foochow, 43, 68, 104, 147, 155, 


164, 


Fatshan, 455. 


166, 172, 173, 192, 


263, 


Fauna, 662-665. 


403, 406, 407, .521, 563 


565, 


Feasts, 22, 23, 76, 77, 185, 186, 239, 


589, 604, 622, 627, 


629, 


362, 607, 643. 


630. 




Feather-fans, 234. 


„ Books for learning, 88. 




Feathers, 161, 602, 615, 624, 627. 


„ lacquer, 312. 




„ Kingfishers, 664. 


„ squadron, 404. 




Fees for doctors, 177, 651. 


, Food, 19, 94, 243-248, 665. 




Feet, Bound, 189, 204, 654. 


„ for a baby, 75, 




Female parts in the theatre, 602. 


,, „ mother, 75, 




Festivals, 22, 185, 186, 600. 


Foot-binding, 71, 274, 




Feudal States, 280, 281, 282, 294. 


„ paths, 619. 




Fibres, 625. 


„ rule, 65, 618, 




Fidelity in representing birds, 48. 


Foreign arms, 41, 




Fights, Clan, 139, 140. 


„ concessions, 632, 634. 




Fiji, Tea in, 590. 


,, devil, 535. 




Filature silk establishments, 528, 


„ drilled troops, 40, 41, 


43, 


529, 624, 627. 


,, fortifications, 41-42, 




Filial piety, 236-238, 296, 297. 


„ officers, 41, 42, 




Finger nails, 217, 386, 


„ subjects, 634, 




Fire crackers, 114, 238-240, 643. 


„ trade, 619-629, 




„ Introduction of, 277. 


„ words, 319, 320, 




„ screens, 205. 


Foreigner, The, in Far Cathay, 


229- 


< „ works, 238-240. 


231, 248-249. 





INDEX. 



Forfeits, 250. 

Formation of land, 2G0-264. 

Formosa, 273, 21I1. 202, 293, 459, 

503, 589. 598, 629, 636. 6Gi. 
Formosan stamps, 562, 563. 
Forts, 41. 
Fortmie teller, 70. 
Foxes, 165, 231, 581. 
Fractions, 1, 617. 
France and French, 250, 257, 624, 

625. 
Franco-Chinese War, (navy) 597. 
Fraud, 626. 
Freights, Low, 623. 
French concessions, 634. 

„ consumption of tea, 596, 597. 

,', in China, 158, 249. 

„ Railwaj's or Fi'cnch system 
of Railways, 507, 508. 

., stamps, 560. 

,. treaties, 630-631, 632. 

„ war, 403. 

„ zone of influence, 635. 
Frescoes, 34, 49. 
Friar Jordanus, 79. 
Friendliness, Marks of, 219, 220. 
Friezes, 49. 
Frogs, 301, 665, 
Fruit, 250-254. 
„ blossoms, 241. 
„ trees. Cultivation of, 18. 
Fuh-hi 277. 

Fuh-kien, 103, 123, 124, 262, 273, 
284, 295, 298, 415, 549, 604, 632, 
647. 
•Funeral, 65. 66, 114, 239, 335,336, 
388, 389, 390, 391, 393. 

„ cards. 389. 
Fungshui, 265-267, 605. 606, 613. 
Funing, 632. 
Furniture, 65. 
Furs, 427. 



G 



Gaberdine, 187. 
Galley, 616 
Gama, Vasco da, 564. 
'Gamblinor, l, 23, 226, 227, 494-499. 
Game, 521, 628. 
Games, 23-25, 308-310, 494-499, 521- 

523. 
Gardenia, 589. 
Gardens, 23, 254-255, 589. 
Garrisons, 39, 40. 

Gazette, Peking, 159, 220, 407, 408. 
Genealogies, 139, 



Genii, The Eight, 107, 412, 578, 580. 

Genoa, 626. 

Gentlemen, The Country of, 4. 

„ smoking, 610. 

Geography. 201, 256-259, 344. 
Geology, 260-264. 
-Geomancy, 265-267, 425, 516. 
Geometrical patterns, 32. 
German concessions, 634. 

„ consumption of tea, 597. 
„ stamps, 560. 
,, treaties, 631. 
„ zone of influence, 635. 
Germany, and Germans in China, 
158, 249, 257, 625. 
„ Chinese in, 129 293. 
Ghengis Khan, 354, 355. 
Gingals, 38, 41. 
.Ginger, 75, 267-268. 
Ginseng, 268-269. 
Girdle of China, 260. 
Giquel, 160. 

Girls. 8-12, 69-72, 111-114, 202, 205, 
296-298, 359-365, 387-388, 400, 
522,"653-65S. 
Girls' names, 400. 
Glasses, 177. 

Go-betweens, 69, 70, 71, 72, 532, 617. 
Goats, 440. 
Goddess of Mercy, 99, 101. 

„ „ Silk, 523. 
Goddesses, 11, 12, 207. 
Godowns, 31. 

Gods, 11, 12, 107, 553, 580, 581. 
Gold fish, 255, 666. 

„ Incrustations on, 97. 
Golden eagles trained for the chase, 
664. 
„ Isles of the Blest, 578. 
„ lilies, 204, 654. 
„ Mirror of the Medical Prac- 
tice, 643, 644, 645. 
Gongs, 41, 186, 361, 393, 394, 572, 

609. 
Goorkhas. 292. 

Gordon, General, 45, 160, 293, 550. 
Gossiping, 24, 654. 
Government, 237, 270-273, 325, 327, 
405, 524. 
., encoura^'-ing vaccination, 648, 
651. 
Grains, The Five, 412, 
Grammar, 315, 
Granite, 30, 33, 36, 261, 262, 263, 

264, 
Grant, General, 222. 
Grapes, 253, 



INDEX. 



Grass-cutters, 657. 
Grass-hand, 660. 
Grasshoppers, 303. 323. 
Graves, 153, 612-613. 
Great Britain's consumption of tea, 
588, 593, 594, 596, 597, 624, 627, 
628. 
Greek art, 51, 96. 
„ decorative design, 96. 
„ drama, 603, 604. 
Green porcelain, 482, 483, 485, 489. 
„ room, 601. 
„ standard, 40. 
„ tea, 587, 588, 589, 591, 592. 
Grenada, Chinese in, 1 1 9. 
Grev is mourning, 616. 
Grits, 262. 

Grosvenor, Mr., 438. 
Grabs, Silkworm, 244. 
Guards for the Palace, 39. 
Guava, 253. 
Guests, 215, 218, 219. 
Guitar, 394. . 
Gulfs, 259. 635. 
Gums, 625. 
Gunboats, 404, 406 
Gymnastic exercises, 24, 228. 



H 



Ha dynasty, 116, 279. 
Habitations of the poor, 32. 
Hades, 577. 
Hainan, 5,124, 193, 257, 340, 598, 

640, 662. 664. 
Hainanese,Booksfor learning, 88, 173 
Haiphons:, Chinese in. 121. 
Hair, 6, 190, 192, 274, 615, 616. 

„ presses, 305. 
Hakka, Books for learning, 88, 89. 
Hakkas, 124, 167, 170, 171, 172,173, 

190, 192, 273-276, 298. 
Halberds, 36, 37. 
Hall, Eeception, 31. 
Ham, 650. 
Hamburs;, 611. 
Hammer oyster, 666. 
Handing things, 217. 
Handling articles, 217, 614. 
Han dynasties, 105, 115, 283, 294, 

306, 316, 320, 326, 342, 578, 
H5,n jin. 115, 283. 
Hangchow, 81, 84, 105, 879, 632. 
Hankan, 52. 
Hankow, 41, 142, 298, 407, 563. 

„ 591, 626, 631, 632, 634, 635. 
,. and Cautua Eailway, 510. 



Hankow Eailway, 506, 508, 509, 
510. 

Hanlin, 226, 498. 
„ College, 226. 

Han Man Kung, or Han Yii, 465-466, 
468. 

Harrow, 17. 

Hart, Sir Kobert, 158, 160, 161, 162, 
493. 

Hats, 64, 190, 191, 213, 216, 274, 
614. 

Hau-luk, 498. 

Havana tobacco, 611. 

Hawaii, Chinese in, 120, 129. 

Hawthorn pattern, 490. 

Headcloths, 190. 

Heaven and earth. Worship of, 95, 
513, 553,582. 

Heavens. IDistance of the, 570. 

Hebrew, 307. 

Hehlung Kiang, 598. 

Height of Chinese, 130, 132, 133. 

Hell, 580. 

Hemp, 624. 

Henniken, Major von, 160. 

Heroes and deceased men. Worship 
of, 553. 581. 582. 

Hia dynnsty 279. 

Hides, 624. 

Hien Fung, 292. 293. 

Hieroglyphics, 658, 659. 

High, Ascending on, 23. 

Hillside land, 600. 

Hindustanee, 421. 

Historical plays, 602. 

History, 24, 86, 197-198, 276-294, 
342. 343, 344. 

Ho Sin Kwu, 78. 

Hoang Tsuan. 53 

Hoe. 17. 

Hokaii, 630, 631. 

Hokkien, 192. 

Hoklo, 295. 

„ speech, 172, 295. 

Honan, 277, 279, 281, 306, 415, 508. 

Honesty, 619. 

Hongkew, 634. 

Hongkonir,143, 15,5, 183, 190. 192, 
193, 21 13, 223, 230, 239, 249, 251, 
262, 263, 266, 268, 274, 288, 295, 
307, 308, 333, 336, 341, 376, 406, 
407, 433, 434, 446, 447, 448, 449, 
450, 451, 452, 454, 455, 531, 532, 
560, 561, 601, 604, 606. 611, 621, 
635, 640, 641, 652, 662, 665. 
Hongkong dollar, 156. 
„ Flora of, 92. 



INDEX. 



Hongkong Government Vaccine Ins- 
titute, 652. 
„ stamps, 56U, 561. 
Hong Shun, 23U. 
Hongs, 31. 

Honorary distinction, 159-163. 
Honour, Place of, 215. 
Hookah, OUtl, 610. 
Horseback, Permitted to ride' on, 

161, 162. 
Horses, 6()3. 

Hospitals, 376, 377, 619, 650, 651. 
Hosts. 215, 218, 219. 
Hot water cloth, 218. 
Hour, Chinese, 608. 
Houses, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 80, 106, 
323, 660. 
,. Paper, 27. 
' How do you do V In Chinese, 614. 
Hukwong, or Hunan and Hupeh, 6, 

103, 259, 268, 310, 508, 510, 593, 

598, 629, 630, 632. 
Hung League, 548, 558. 
Hung Sau-t'siin, 549. 

„ Wu, 67, 105, 289, 36.5. 
Hungarians in China, 158. 
Huns, 353, 381, 382. 
Husbandman's song, 461. 
Hwang-ti, 7, 278, 391, 474, 658. 
Hyson, 585. 



Ibn Batuta, 79, 153. 
Ichang, 563, 629, 632. 
Iconoclastic persecutions, 96. 
Idolatry, 576, 581, 582, 680. 
Ignorance, 516, 517. 
Hi, 257, 471. 
litis, Officers of, 160. 
Images, 26, 107, 146, 147. 
Imitative symbols, 658-659. 

„ words, 318. 
Immortalitv, Elixir of, 572, 576, 

578, 579, .582. 
Imperial Library, 345. 

„ Manufactory of Porcelain, 
476, 477, 478, 479. 
Incense sticks, 64, 74, 551, 553 

643. 
Indefinlteness of the Chinese, 608. 
Index Expurgatorius, 345. 
India, 3o8, 320, 337, 413, 454, 603, 
605, 620, 623, 



India Chinese in, 117, 118, 120, 121, 

620. 
Indian art, 51, 478. 
,, language, 434. 
„ opium;621,622. 
„ tea, 584, 585, 589, 590. 591, 
592, 593, 594, 595, 596, 597. 
Industry, 133. 
^Infanticide, 17, 238, 296-298, 391, 

565. 
Inheritance of property, 599. 
Initiation of Triads, 551-555. 
Ink, 50. 

Inner Apartments, 655. 
■Inoculation, 641-645, 647. 
Insanitation, 144, 153, 442, 445, 446, 

455. 
Inscriptions on fans, 23. 253, 236. 
-Insects, 35, 103, 298-304, 453, 666. 
Insignia of rank, 358. 
Inspector General of Customs, 157, 

158, 160, 161, 162,493. 
Instructor of the Emperior, 163. 
Instruments of music, 392, 394. 

„ „ torture, 618. 

Intellect, Seat of, in the stomach, 

614. 
Intercalary month, 607, 608. 
Interjectional element in the lan- 
guage, 318. 
Internal trade, 619, 620, 629. 
Introduction of Buddhism, 97, 284. 
„ ,, inoculation, 641 , 642, 

643. 
,. „ inoculation into 

the West, 641, 642. 
643. 
,, „ tobacco, 611. 

II ,, ,1 into America, 

611. 
„ „ vaccination, 641-653. 

,, „ western art, 54, 56. 

,, ,, writing, 658. 

Invention of printing, .500. 

„ „ writing, 658-659, 

Inventions, Adoption of foreign. 

608. 
Ireland, Snakes in, 606, 607. 
Iron, 63, 610. 
Iron-capped Princes, 410, 
Ironclads, 402, 406. 
Ironworks, 506. 
Irregulars, 40. 
Irrigation, Methods of, 15. 
Islands, 257, 258. 
Italian, 158, 249, 250. 
Ivory carving, 106, 107, 

b 2 



Xll 



INDEX. 



Jackets, 112, 186-189, 191, 274, 295, 

387, 615. 
Jackfruit, 253. 
' Jade,, 304-306, 615. 
Jakutsh, 648. 
Jamaica, Chinese in, 119. 
Japan and Japanese, 6, 257, 290, 
307, 310, 320, 594, 608, 
625, 637. 
Japan, Chinese in, 126. 
Japanese concessions, or settlements. 
632, 6S4, 635. 
„ cotton goods, 623. 
„ dollar, 156. 
„ in China, 249. 
„ matches, 627. 
„ stamps, 560. 
„ tea, 589. 
„ tobacco, 610. 
„ treaties, 632. 
„ war, 402. 
Jasmines, 589. 
Java, Chinese in, 125. 
„ Tea in, 589, 590. 
Jay, 665. 

JealoAsies of polj'gamy, 365, 656. 
Jeering at women, 654. 
Jehovah, Name of, 575. 
Jekutzh, 648. 
Jelebu, Chinese in, 124. 
Jesuits, 56, 290, 292, 346, 372-375, 

575. 
Jewellery, 305. 
-Jews, 306, 307, 
' Jinrickshas, 307-308. 
Johore, Chinese in, 124. 

„ Tea in, 590. 
Joss paper, 59. 
Journals, 59, 60, 83, 84, 85. 
Ju porcelain, 477. 
Judges, 333, 334. 
Jugglers, 24, 578, 579. 
Junks, 78, 79, 117, 118, 122, 402, 

406, 425. 
Justice, Poetical, 603. 

K 

Eaempfer, 268. 

Kaifung-fu, 105, 306, 307. 

Kaiping and Taku Eailway, 504, 

505. 
Kamchatkan consumption of tea, 

597. 
Kamchuk, 630. 



Kang-hi, 97, 174, 229, 291, 313, 318, 

373, 392, 413, 483, 487, 488, 489. 
Kangra Valley tea, 595. 
Kangs, 650. 
Kansuh, 379, 415. 
Kaolin, 476, 477. 
Karakorum, 306. 
Kaulung, 188, 452, 635. 
Keeping step, 616. 
„ time, 606. 
Kerosene, 623, 626, 627. 
Kerr, Dr., 651. 
Khitai, 115. 
Khitans, 115, 355, 382. 
Khotan, 304, 305. 
Kia King, 292. 
Kia Yi, 460, 587. 
Kiakhta, 648. 
Kiang Chow, 629. 
Kiangnam, 123, 256, 647. 
Kiangsi, 103, 262, 268, 273, 604, 630, 

647. 
Kiangsu, 261, 262, 415, 472, 528, 

631, 632. 
Kiang Tao-jin, 52. 
Kiaochow, 293, 635. 
Kidnapping, 10. 
Kieh Kwei, 279. 
Kien Lung, 292, 313, 392, 473, 488- 

491. 
Kien porcelain, 477. 
Kimberley, Chinese in, 120. 
Kin dynasty, 603. 
King-crabs, 666. 
Kingfishers' feathers, 360, 664. 
King Hao, 53. 
„ of the Beggars, 365. 
King-teh-chin, 476, 478, 626. 
Kins, 287, 354, 383. 
Kiosks, 255. 
Kirin, 415. 
Kitah, 115. 
Kitasato, 450. 
"Kites, 24, 59, 308-310, 522, 616. 
Kiukiang. 146, 563. 596, 626, 627. 

631. ' 

Knickerbockers, 187. 
Knotted strings for recording 

events, 355. 
Ko Yan, 479. 
Kokonor, 257, 663. 
Ko-lo-wui, 558, 559. 
Kon-min-you;.', 497. 
Kongmun, 630. 
Kowlung, 183, 452, 635 
Kow Shing, 160. 
Kowtow, 62. 



INDEX. 



ziii 



Koxinga, 291, 410, 063, 664. 


Li, 155. 


Kuan porcelain. 47S). 


Li Cheng, 52, 54. 


Kublai Khan, 68, 87, 97, 10(5, 256, 


Li Cheng-ho, 52. 


287, 2SS, 289. 


Li Hung-chang-, 161. 


Kucheng massacre, 5.^9. 


Li Kin Kii Sze, 55. 


Kulangsu, 262. 


Li Kwai, 32(5. 


Kwang-chau-wan. 456, 635. 


Li Luntc-yen, 57. 


Kwang-si, 5, 6, 140, 171, 172, 259, 


Li Tai-po, 349, 461-464. 


262,273, 311, 507,604, 631,632. 


Li Ti, 54. 


Kwong Sui, 229, 293,607. 


Li Tsien, 52. 


Kwangtung, 5, 6, 103, 123, 140, 170, 


Lice, 304. 


259, 262, 267, 273, 274, 284, 292, 


•F-ichi, 251. 


295, 344, 507, 604, 629. 641, 647. 


Licius, or Lieh-tsz, 429, 577. 


Kweichow, 5, 6, 262, 415, 472, 569. 


Lictors, 333. 


Kwong-chau-wan, 456,635. 


Lien Chow, 444. 




Life for a life, 334. 


L 


„ of little account, 565, 566, 




„ placid, 606. 


L. L. D., 225. 


„ Saving of, 565. 


Labourers, 188. 


Tiight and shade, 47, 54. 


Labuan, Chinese in, 125. 


Lighthouses, 157, 340-341. 


Lacquer, 310-314, 523. 


Lilies, 242. 


Ladies, 24. 


• Literature, 53, 86, 116, 200, 283, 


,, smoking, 610, 616. 


341-351, 380, 656. 


Lakes, 258, 261. 


„ God of, 107, 581. 


Lances, 41. 


Liturgies, 580. 


Lancet. 650, 652. 


Liu Liang, 55. 


Land forces, 39, 40. 


Loan, Money, Associations, 536-548. 


„ formed from the sea, 260, 261. 


Local Constabutary, 40. 


„ tax, 599, 600. 


,, Post Offices, 460, 493. 561, 


Landscapes, 47, 49, 52, 53, 54, 57, 


563, 564. 


66, 233, 422. 


Lodgfes, 550-555, 557. 


Langson-Lungchow Railway, 507. 


Loess formation, 261. 


Language, 5, 6, 87, 88-91, 197, 273, 


Loin cloth, 188. 


295, 314-322. 


Lolo, 443. 


Lao-tsz, 281, 572-583. 


London, 626, 627, 629. 


Lark, 322-324, 664-665. 


„ Chinese in, 128. 


Laughing when death is mentioned. 


Looms, 528. 


614. 


Loquat, 251. 


Laureate, 226. 


^Lotteries, 495, 496. 


-Law, 29, 284, 288, 324-334, 534, 535, 


Lotus, 242, 254. 


545, 547, 555. 


Love, 603. 


Laws of the Universe, 582. 


Love letters, 654. 


Lawyers, 333. 


Lii Ki, 55. 


Lay, 158. 


Lu-chi-kou, 630. 


Le, 5. 


Lucky days, 644. 


Leather, 624. 


Lung-chow, 630, 631. 


Leave, (Jetting, 617. 


Lung ch'iian-yan, 479. 


Leaves, 77, 78. 


Lung Ngtiu, 251. 


Leeward Islands, Chinese in, 119. 


Lutes, 394. 


Left the seat of honour, 614, 


Luzon, 609. 


Legendary history, 277. 




Leggings, 187, 188, 210. 


M 


Lepers and Leprosy, 173, 244, 334- 




339, 651, 652. 


M. A., 225. 


Letter writing 200, 201. 


Ma Kon, 54. 


Letters of credit, 67. 


Ma Twan-lin, 344. 



INDEX. 



Ma Yuen, 54. 




Marks on porcelain, 492. 


Macanese, 223. 




• Marriage, 69-72, 78, 114. 239, 359- 


Macao, 72, 84, 142, 14.S, 190, 


192, 


365, 386, 393, 473, 532, 


223, 2-tO, 249, 251, 308, 


341, 


533, .535, .536, 564, 565, 


406, 407, 452. 504, 606, 


635, 


617, 6.53-658. 


, 641, 643, 665. 




„ name, 396, 397. 


„ postage stamps, 564. 




„ The Three Covenants and 


Macartney, Sir H., 163. 




Six Ceremonies of, 70. 


Mace, 155. 561, 562. 




Marseilles, 626. 


Machin, 115, 




Martial law, 46. 


Machinery for tea, 590, 591, 


595, 


Marts, 259, 412. 


596. 




Mass, 389, 577. 


Made in Germany, 625. 




Matches, 627. 


Magenta dye, 625. 




Matchlocks, 38, 41. 


Magic, 265, 516, 578, 580, 582. 




Mathematics, 203, 204, 229, 346. 


„ sword, 581. 




Matheson, 160. 


Magicians, 578. 




Mats and matting, 64, 624, 628. 


Magistracy, 600. 




Matsheds, 32, 63, 388, 600. 


Magrnolias, 242. 




Mauritius, Chinese in, 120. 


Malacca, Chinese in, 122, 123. 




Meadow land, Absence of, 20, 92. 


Malaria, 303, 304. 




Meals, 218, 219, 245, 246, 247. 


Malay, 431. 




Measures. 65. 


Malaysia, Chinese in, 122, 123. 




•Medals, 159, 160. 


Malwa, 622. 




Medical works, 341, 345, 346. 643. 


Mammalia, 662-664. 




Medicine, 65, 177, 178, 268, 416. 


Man the beast of burden, 617, 


620. 


„ and Disease, Gods of, 581. 


Manchester goods, 623. 




Melon seeds, 601. 


Manchu, 39, 269. 287, 291, 292, 


293, 


Memory, 133. 


294, 326, 352-355, 503 


553. 


Men of war, 402-406, 


„ langfuage, 319, 355-357 


386. 


Mencius, 270, 278, 281, 402, 410, 


Manchuria, 257, 259, 268, 269, 


293, 


429. 


471, 525, 526, 597, 605, 662, 


363. 


•- Mendicants, 365-369. 


Manchurian railways, oil, 512. 




Mengtze, 415, 443, 444,631, 633. 


Mandalay, (Chinese in, 121, 




Mental characteristics, 133, 135. 


Mandarin, 204, 216. 219, 220, 


222, 


*Menu of Chinese dinner, 247. 


273,293,357-359,517 


518. 


Mercantile honesty, 135, 619. 


„ Books for learning, 89. 




Metals, 264, 412, 571. 


„ duck, 359, 665. 




Metaphoric symbols aud combina- 


., language, 105, 106, 167, 


169- 


tions, 659. 


170, 173. 174, 175, 


317, 


Metempsychosis, 565. 


359. 




Methodical, 619. 


„ orange, 359. 




Mexican dollar, 155. 


„ porcelain, 491. 




Mexico, 306. 


Man-tsz, 5, 6, 153, 502. 




„ Chinese in, 120, 


Mang-hao, 631. 




„ Tea in. 590 


Mango, 253. 




Miau-tsz, 5. 6. 7. 2i;7, 292, 502. 


Manila cigars, 611, 612. 




Mice, 243, 244, 6ii3. 


Manipur, Tea in, 595. 




Micius, 429. 


Manuring, 15, 19. 




Middle Flowery Kingdom, 116. 


Maoris, Comsumption of tea 




., Kingdom, 61, 115. 


amongst, 596. 




Midwife, 74. 


Maps on fans, 234. 




Mih-tsz or Micius, 429, 


Marco Polo, 68. 79, 87, 100. 


105, 


Mileage of coast, 257. 


1.53, 155, 181, 256, 257, 288, 


372, 


„ „ telegraph, 589. 


474. 




Milfoil, 428. 


Marine forces, 40, 402-406. 




Military, 39-46, 358. 


Maritime trade, 619-629. 




„ examinations, 44-45, 228, 



INDEX. 



xif 



Military officers, 43, 44, 45, 46, 228, 

229, 358. 
Milk-name, 397. 
„ of the bulialo, 103. 
Millet, 515. 
Milne 375. 
Minerals, 2f)4. 610. 
Ming, 36, 55, 56, 68, 105, 256, 275, 
282,289,290,291,294,317, 
326,347,365,373,383,413, 
475, 481, 536, 552, 609. 
„ porcelain, 480-483. 
Minto, 156, 293. 
Miracle plays, 604. 
• Missions and missionaries, 164, 202, 
203, 274, 295, 370-378, 
408, 649, 650. 652. 
„ Protestant, 26, 274, 295, 408. 
„ Roman Catholic, 26, 372- 
375. 
Modern music, 392. 
Modes of expressing time, 609. 
Modesty, 193. 
.^Mohammedan, 26. 36, 116,. 286, 293, 
307, 379-381, 413, 440, 
603, 607. 
„ literature, 380. 
Mohammed's uncle, 379, 380. 
Monasteries, 54, lOO, 581, 589. 
■^ Money, 67-69, 154-156. 

„ Loan Associations, 536-548. 
„ scales, 155. 
Mongol dynasty. 54, 55. 69, 97, 117, 
118, 27.5, 287-289. 
„ languapfe, 384-386. 
Mongolia, 257, 319, 621, 663. 
Mongolian, The, Family, 129. 
„ lark, 823. 
„ soldiery, 39. 
Mongols, 294, 317, 353, 356, 381- 
384, 502, 648, 664. 
„ Characteristics and customs 
of, 383-384. 
Monkeys, 453, 662. 
Monsoons, 91, 118, 
Monte Video. 306. 
Moon, 553, 570, 571, 572, 607, 608. 
„ cakes, 23, 571. 
„ feasts, 23, 186, 571. 
Morality, 134, 137, 580. 
"Morphia, 419, 421, 622. 
Morra, 250. 

Morrison, Dr., 374, 375. 
Mortality from inoculation. 643. 
Mortgage and mortgagee, 600. 
Mosques. 380. 
•Mosquito, 137, 232, 303, 304. 



Moths, 299, 302. 

Mountains, 258. 

„ Worship of, 95, 582. 

'Mourning, 9. 11, 386-391, 535, 553, 
616. 

Moustache, 615, 
' Mulberry, 91, 524. 

Mules, 663. 

Municipal Council, Shanghai, 563. 

Municipalities at Treaty Ports, 563. 

Mural decorations, -19, 50, 184. 

Murder. 22, 24, 114, 239, 391-396, 
602, 603, 604. 

Mushrooms, 650, 
. Music, 391-396, 654. 
^Musical instruments, 394, 395. 

Mutton, 247, 383, 650. 

Mutual responsibility, 271. 

Muzzle loaders, 41. 

Mysore, Chinese in, 120, 121. 

Mystery plays, 600. 

Mythological period, 276. 277, 294. 

Myths, 513. 



N 



Nakedness, 130. 

"Names, 113, 114-116, 220, 396-402, 
617. 
„ for China, 114-116. 
„ „ God, 373, 374, 581. 
„ „ tea, 583, 585, 586. 
Nankeen, 150. 

Nanking, 36, 105. 106, 141, 289,307, 
365, 405, 423, 425, 426, 
549, 630. 
„ pagoda, 36, 423, 425, 426. 
„ porcelain tower, 36, 423, 

425, 426. 
„ Treaty of, 376, 629. 
Nunning, 507, 632. 
Narcissus, 241. 
Natal, Tea in, 590. 
National Bank, 67. 
Native opium, 622. 
Natural Philosophy, 572. 

,, Science, Rudiments of, 265. 
Nature, Love of, 242, 457. 
„ sounds, 318. 
„ The Three Powers of, 411. 
„ The Worship of, 95, 457, 513, 
580, 582. 
Naval Colleges, 405. 

,, Offiers, 44. 
Naw, 79, 293, 402-406. 
Needles, 627. 
Negri Sembilan, Chinese in, 124, 



ty 



INDEX. 



^Nestorian Monument, 370-371. 


Oaths, 213, 333. 




•>Nestorians, 100, 285. 356, 370-372. 


„ of Triads, 553. 554. 




Netherlands India, Chinese in, 129. 


Obscenity, 212, 213, 654, 




New Guinea, Chinese in, 128, 129. 


Observatory, 97. 




„ South Wales, Chinese in, 128. 


Ochotzk, 648. 




„ Year, 114, 186, 213, 239, 241, 


Odoric, Friar, 147. 




607. 


Offerings to the dead, 27. 




„ Zealand, 306. 


Officers and Officials, 41, 


357-359, 


„ ,, Chinese in, 128. 


498, 615, 617, 619. 




Newchwang, 141, 340, 505, 512, 625, 


Official calls, 219, 220, 393. 




629, 634. 


„ mourning, 388. 




Newspapers, 377, 406-408. 


„ name, 397, 398. 




Ng Sam-kwai, 291, 


„ rank, 615. 




Ngan-ching:, 630. 


„ religion, 95. 




Ngan Hwui, 53, 57. 


., residences, 34. 




Nganwhui, or Anhwei, 262, 415, 569, 


Oils, 624. 




629, 630, 666. 


Old age, 130. 




Ngau-p'ai, 498. 


Old Boy. The, 574. 




Nickel, 610. 


Olea fragrans, .589. 




Nicknames, 398. 


Olive seeds, 106, 108. 




Ningpo, 84, 107, 141, 167, 173. 622, 


Onfa tea trade. 593. 




629, 630, 643, 651. 


Open doors, 293, 294. 




„ Books for learning, 89. 


Opera, 602. 




„ carving, 107. 


.Opium, 413-420, 427, 517, 


568, 569, 


,. lacquer, 312. 


570, 650. 




Nobility, 409-410, 618. 


„ _ pills, 421, 621, 622. 




Noise, 238. 


Opposition to railway's, 504 


505, 506, 


Noises, Disagreeable, 215. 


507. 




Nom de plume, 402. 


Orange-pips, Guessing the 


number 


North America, 624. 


of, 496, 497. 




„ of China, 143, 297, 298, 520, 


•Oranges, 91, 251, 359, 496, 


589, 


527, 620, 662, 663. 


Orders of Merit, 159, 160. 




„ River, 604. 


Organ, 394. 




Northern Buddhism, 98. 


Origin of the Chinese, 4, 256. 


„ fleet, 293, 402, 404, 405. 


Ornaments and Ornamentation, 29, 


„ Mandarin, 106. 


32, 274, 305, 660, 661. 




„ School of Painting, 52, 


Otters, 663. 




53, 54. 


Ouan Mo-kie, 53. 




,. Squadron. 402, 404. 


Outdoor pursuits for women, 657. 


„ Sung, 285. 


sports, 23, 24, 25, 




Norway, Tonnage of, to China, 625. 


Outings, 22, 23, 58, 59, 




Norwegians in China, 158, 249. 






Notches in sticks for recording 






events, 355. 


P 




Novels, 347, 348, 655. 






Number of Chinese vaccinated, 645, 


Pacific, 636. 




646,647,648,649,650, 


Paddy. 514, 




651, 652. 


'Pagoda, 36, 380, 421-426. 




,, „ foreigners in China. 


Pahang, Chinese in, 125. 




248, 249. 


P'ai-kaii, 498. 




Numerical Categories, 197, 411-413. 


Painters, 47-58, C^6. 
Painting. 47-58, 6(^. 
Pakhoi, 444, 445, 629, 631. 







„ Railways, 507, 508. 
Pak-kop-piu, 496. 




Oak, 525, 527. 


Palace, 62. 




Oars, 616. 


Paleozoic rocks, 262. 





INDEX. 



Pa I in leaf. 232. 

„ „ fans., 232. 
Pangolin, ()(i4. 
Pantomime. (502. 
Paper, 50, (So, 500, 501. 
,. notes, 155. 
„ storks, 3S8. 
Parasit<^s, 113. 303. 
Parental authority, 23G-238, 327, 
532, 534, 535. 
„ Government, 270. 
Passports, 634. 
Pastenr system, 520. 
Pasture land, Absence of, 20, 92, 
Patience, 106, 133, 206, 610. 
Patna opium, 622. 
Patriarchal Government. 270. 
Patrick, St., 60(1. 
.Pawnshops, 206, 426-428. 
' Pawn tickets, 428. 
Pay of soldiers, 43. 
Peaceableness, 133. 
Peaceful, 516. 
f Peaches, 241, 252. 
-Peacock feather, 161, 615. 
Peak in Hongkong, 143, 636. 
Pear, 253. 
Pearl Eiver, 262. 
Pearson Dr., 645-648. 
Pechili, 261. 

,. Gulf of, 635. 
Pecoe, or Pekoe, 585, 591. 
Peculation;*, 43, 
Pedlers. 205, 
Peiho, 260. 

Peking, 97, 106, 141, 150, 166, 180, 

226, 259, 288. 379, 597, 

620, 629, 631, 632, 635, 

641, 647, 648, 649. 

„ Canton Eailway, 506, 509, 

510. 
„ Gazette, 407, 408. 
,, Tientsin Railway, 510. 
Pekingese, Books for learning, 

89. 
Pen, 65. 
Pun ts'ao and botanical works, 49. 

92, 94. 
Penal code, 284. 325. 
Penang, 621. 
Peony, 242. 243. 
Perak. Chinese in, 124. 
Periodicals, 406-408. 
Persecutions of Buddhism, 96, lOl, 
371, 372. 
„ ., the Nestorians, 371, 

372. 



Persoctions of (ho Roman Catholics, 

374. 
Per.soverance, ]33, 206. 
Persia, 285, 320. 
Persian Art, 97, 491. 

„ opium, 621, 622. 
Persimmons, 253, 
Perspective, Chinese, 47, 57, 100. 
Peru, Chinese in, 120. 
Pescadores, 598. 
Peso, 507. 

Petticoats, 187, 204. 
Pheasants, 521, 624, 665. 
Philippines, 611, 645. 

,, Chinese in, 120. 

„ Tea in the, 589. 

Philology, 87, 814-322, 
Philosopher's stone, 578, 579, 582. 
Philosophy, 144, 145, 146, 197, 265, 
342, 345, 428-430, 571, 572-583. 
Phonetic, 659. 
Physical Characteristics, 129-133, 

144. 
Picking tea, 585, 586, 
Picnics, 255. 
Pictures, 47-58. 
•Pidgin English, 430-432. 
Piece goods, 650, 651, 
Pigeons, 452. 
Pigments, 50. 
Pigs, 663. 
Pigs' wash, 657. 
Pikes, 36, 37. 
Pinafore, 188. 
Pineai)ple, 253. 
Ping Wong, 280. 
Pins, 305. 
x^ipes, 65, 609, 610, 611, 

,, Opium, 65, 513. 
Piracies, 627. 
Pirates, 292. 
Pi-se. 478. 
Pith flowers, 243. 
Pla-ue, 304, 432-457. 
Plains, 258, 260, 261, 471, 472, 
Planets, The Five, 571. 
Plantains, 251. 
Plantations, Tea, 585. 
Plays, 317, 601, 602, 603, 
Pliny, 344. 

Ploughing, Emperor and Officers, 13. 
Plum, 241, 253. 
Poe, E. A., 460. 
Poetry, Cylj, 86, 457-470, 579, 603, 

655, 660. 
Poets, 66, 457-470. 
Polite enquiries, 215, 614, 654. 



xviii 



INDEX. 



Politeness, 133, 134, 212-222, 369. 
Political geography, 259. 
Polygamy, 364, 365, 473, 5G4. 
Polygnotus, 57. 
Polytheism, Buddhistic and other, 

99, 574. 
Pomegranite, 254. 
'"Porcupine, 664. 
Pools, 254. 

Pope of Taonism, 581. 
Popped rice, 515. 
Poppy, Cultivation of, 14, 413, 414, 

415. 
Population, 470-473, 632, 662. 
N Porcelain, 87, 182, 183, 184,473-192, 
523, 661. 
,. Tower in Nanking, 105, 

481. 
Pork, 243, 245, 247, 363, 650, 663. 
Porpoise, 664. 

Port Arthur, 41, 293, 626, 635. 
Porto Pico, Chinese in, 119. 
Portraits, 54. 
Ports of call, 630, 634. 
Portuguese, 125, 223. 248, 249, 251, 
290, 292, 406, 431, 473, 
611, 645. 
„ colony, 635. 
„ in China, 643. 
Possession by demons, 163-105. 
Possessions of foreign nations in 

China, 635. 
Postage, 492-494. 

., stamps, 493, 494, 560-564. 
Post cards, 561, 563, 564. 

„ offices, 492-494, 561. 
Posts, 157, 158, 492-494. 
Posthumous adoption, 9. 

name, 398, 401. 
„ titles, 162, 163, 409. 

410. 
Potsz. 494, 495. 
Pottery, 473, 474. 
Poultry, 430, 665. 
Poverty, 297. 

Powers of Nature, The Three, 411. 
Poyang, 258. 
Prayer Books, 580. 
Precious stones, 264. 286. 
Prefectures, 259, 413. 
Preparation of tobacco, 610-612. 
Presents, 70, 77, 158, 214. 
Priests, 101, 371, 374, 394, 577, 579. 

580, 647. 
Primitive man, 499. 
Primordial Essences, The Five, 411. 
Prince, The Venerable, 574. 



Principles of government, 270. 
sprinting, 287, 317, 375, 376, 377, 408, 

499-501. 
Prisoners, 230, 231, 327, 328, G18. 
Prisons, 327, 328, 619. 
Privet, 255. 
Processions, 184, 205, 239, 360, 361, 

390, 391, 393. 
Proclamations, 617. 
Progress, 608, 609. 
Promis'sory notes, 67. 
Promontories, 259, 261. 
Promotion of officials, 498. 
Proprieties, 212-222, 663. 
Prostitutes, 533. 

Prostitution, 473, 533, 535, 654, 655. 
Protestants, 26, 375-378, 
-Proverbs, 501-502, 656. 
Provinces, 257, 258, 259, 272, 282, 
Provincial Armj\ 40. 
Provisions, 626. 
Proxj', Marriage by, 364. 
Prudery, 655. 
Pseudo-adoption, 10, 11. 
Public buildings, 33, 282. 

„ opinion, 270. 

,, speaker, 235. 

„ worship. 579. 
Pulse, 177-178. 
Pumelo. 253. 

Punishments. 26, 325, 328, 332. 
Pin-e Ones, The Three, 580, 581. 
Purse, 188, 204. 
Pwan-Ku, 277. 

Q 

Quakers. 608. 

Quail, 521. 

Quarrels, 570. 

Queen's College, Hongkong, 223. 

Queensland. Chinese in, 127. 

Queue, 1S9,'217, 387, 552. 

. ., Cutting off, 552. 



R 



Race, 502-503. 

Radicals or Key words, 615. 

Raihvavs, 174, 267, 293, 503-513. 

521, 587. 
Rain-coats, 64. 
Rain-fall, 141, 142, 143. 
Rake, 64, 191. 
Rangoon, Chinese in, 121. 
Rats, 243. 244, 438, 440, 450, 452, 

453, 663. 



INDEX. 



Rattan, (500. 

Riwen, 4()0. 

Reading' !)G, 01, 202, C,r,l. 

Rebellions, 27(5, 21)2, 29:5, 380, 4-iO, 

471, G20, (527, 
Rebels, 41. 

Receipt.-^, Chincae, 247, 243. 
Reclamation of land. (500. 
Record Ollicc for land, (500. 
Red the festive colour, 11)3, (51G. 
Regatta, 22. 
Regent's Sword, 035 
Registry of land, 600. 
Reign name, 401. 007. 
Religion, 25-29, 50, 85, 97-102, 107, 

108, 144-147, 309, 345, 513-514, 

572-583, (500, 003. 
Renaissance of Buddhism, 55. 
Rendition, 230. 
Respect for age, 134, 130, 213, 214. 

„ ,, writing, 001, 0(52. 
Responsiijility, Mutual, 271. 
Resurrection, 572. 
Returns for trade for 1898, 020. 
Revenge, 500, 567. 
Revenue, 158, 599, 020, 021. 

„ cutter, 009. 
'Rice, 245, 514-515. 

,, birds, 628. 

,; fields, 18, 514, 515, 599. 012. 
Ricci, 372. 
Rifles, 38. 

Right of way, 213, 214. 
Rings, 305. 

Riots, 515-520, .558, 559, 598. 
Ritual music, 393. 
River Steamers, American, 493. 
Riverine ports, 141, 031. 
Rivers, 78, 80, 249. 258, 200, 201, 

202, 203, 420, 520, 604. 019. 
Roads, 278, 282, 283, 520-521. 
Robbers, 428. 
Robes, 187, 138, 191, 204, 205, 200, 

233, 386, 602. 
Rocher, M., 439. 440, 441, 442, 44.3, 

615, 010, 
Rock-dwellings, 35. 
Rock-work, 242, 254, 255. 
Rodents, 6(53. 

Roman Catholics. 26. 99, 100, lOl, 
372-375. 
„ Empire, Trade with the, 620. 
., dramatists, 0i)3. 
'., merchants, 248, 284. 
., missions, 372-375. 
Romans. 250. 284, 331. 
Roofs, 29-35. 



Roscapplc, 254. 

Rose-coloured porcelain, 484, 490. 

Roses. 242, 539. 

Rouge, 149, 025. 

Ruination of the tea trade, The 

causes of the, 026. 
Ruins, 35. 

Rule of road, 213, 214. 
Rules for inoculation, 643, 644, 645. 

,, for vaccination, 650. 
Ruminants, 663. 
Running hand, 600. 
Russia and Russians, 115, 153, 249, 

257, 293, 648. 
Russian concessions, 634. 

,, consumption of tea, 594, 

597. 
„ kerosene, 623, 627. 
„ system of Railways, 507, 

511,512. 
„ Treaties, 631. 



S 



Sable skins, 102. 
Sackcloth, 380, 388. 
Sacred Edicts, 345. 

„ music, 392-394 

Sacrificial vessels, 95. 
Sagacious, 019. 
Sages, 144-147, 273, 574, 575. 
Sainam, 628. 
Sam Hop Wui, 548-559. 
Sauipan, 04, 057. 
Samsah, 032. 
Samshu, 024. 
Samshui, 030. 
San Kwok Chi, 347, 
San King, 455. 
Sandal wood carving, 107. 
Sandals, 139. 

Sandstone, 261, 202, 204, 483. 
Sandwich Islands, 120. 
Sang-de-bocuf, 484, 488, 489, 491. 
Sanitary science, and want of 

Sanitation, 425, 433, 434, 43S, 442, 

445. 440. 447, 448. 
Sanscrit, 98, 317, 320, 348, 421. 
Sautu, 632, 
Santuao, 030. 

Sap, Irritating Nature of, 310. 
Saw, 617. 
Scalfolding, 63. 
Scarification, 8. 
Scarlet fever, 647. 
Scaven<?ers, 057, 664. 
Sceptics, 305. 

c 2 



INDEX. 



Schaal, Adam, 373. 




Shanties, 32. 




Scholarly stoop. 224. 




Shantung, 10.5, 263, 278, 281, 


337, 


School boys, 1, 197-202, 235. 




415, 472. 




„ name, 396, 397. 




Railwaj, .508, 510. 




Schools, 198. 199, 200, 201, 202, 


212, 


. Shap-tsai, 498. 




376. 




Shark, 665. 




Sciences, 345, 347. 




Sharks' fins. 245, 247, 248. 




Scripts, The Six, 317, 659, 660. 




Shashi and Shashih. 630, 632, 


033, 


Scrolls, 49, 660. 




6,35. 




Scutagc, 599. 




Shaving, 287. 383, 615. 




Sea air bad for tea, 587. 




,, child's head, 75, 76, 


113. 


., board, 78. 




Shawls. 205. 




Seas, 259. 




Sheds, 32, 600. 




Seal characters, 661. 




Sheep, 440. 




Seamstresses, 657. 




Sheng, 394. 




Season for typhoons, 639. 




Shensi, 256, 379. 




Seaweed, 625. 




Shi King, 459. 




Secondary wives, 72, 176, 364, 


535, 


Shin Nung, 14, 278. 




564, 053-658. 




Shing-kun-t'o, 498. 




Secret societies. 65. 136, 140, 548 


-560. 


Shiuhing, 630. 




Sedan-chairs, 24, 62. 64, 71, 162, 


360, 


Shoes, 189, 204, 205, £74, 387, 


522, 


361, 363, 654, 657. 




553, 610, 654. 




„ Imperial, 62. 




Shooting, 521, 




Seeing into the earth, 516. 




Shops, 33, 106, 305, 606, 060. 




Selangor, Chinese in, 124. 




Shorthand, 660. 




Self-denial, Instances of, 237. 




Shrimps, 650. 




Selling girls and women into 




Shu King, 201, 280, 315, 523. 




slavery. 531, 532, 533, 534, 


535. 


Shun, 270, 278, 325, 391, 411, 


474. 


Semi-nudity, 193. 216. 




Shuo-wen, 316. 




Seres, 115, 116, 




Shutters, 33. 




Servants. 217, 218, 219, 530-536 


017, 


Shuttlecock 24, 521-523, 010. 




657. 




Siam, Chinese in, 122. 




Sevvia, Tea in, 590. 




Siamese in China, 158. 




Servitude of women in China, 


617, 


Siberia, Chinese in. 126, 339. 




653-658. 




Siberian Railwav, 511. 




Sesamum seed. 626. 




Signboards. 33. ' 




Settlements, 632, 034, 635. 




Silesia, 306. 




Sewing, 654. 




-■ Silk, 205, 52.3-530, 023. 024. 627. 


Sexagenary cycle, 159. 




' ., filatures, 529. 624. 027. 




Shakspere. 344. 




;, floss. 205. 




Sha-shih, 630. 




,', worms, 233, 302, 523-528, 


060. 


Shaking hands, 217, 614. 




. „ worm grubs, 244. 




Shamien, 634. ' 




Silken cord. 507, 508. 




Shang dynasty, 95. 280. 




Silver, 154-150. 010. 




Shanghai, 84, 89. 141, 152. 153 


157, 


,, fish, 005, 666. 




166, 167, 173, 223, 


261, 


Similarity of all Chinese to the 


new 


307, 387, 406, 407. 


420, 


comer. 130. 




504, 560, 563, 605, 


022, 


SinaD, 115. 




027, 629. 630, 631. 


632, 


Singan-fu, 105. 




634, 650. 




Singapore, 621. 




„ Books for learning, 89. 




„ Chinese in, 123, 124 


308, 


„ flotilla, 404. 




621. 




,. fowls, 065. 




Singing. 393, 394. 




., postage stamps, 563. 




„ girls. 24. 




Phanhaikwan, 415, 632. 




Sinim, Land of, 116. 




Shansi, 194, 204, 281, 297, 415, 


508, 


Sinologue, 116. 




521, 641, G43. 




Sitting down, 215. 





INDKX. 



Siiion Till, 480, 481. 


Spiders, 666. 


Skins, (;24. 


Spinning wheel, 525. 


Skirt.s 187. 


Spirits, 1G3-165, 250, 363. 


Skull-caps, 21G. 


„ , Calling back the, 178. 


Slates, 2H2. 


„ , Evil, 10. 163-165, 398. 


T Slavery, 223, 232, 473, 530-r.36, 


Spiritualism, 354. 


617. 


Splashed w.are, 476, 486. 


Sleep invented, 277. 


Sport, 521. 


Sleeves. I'Jl, 192, fil.j. 


Sports, Outdoor, 23, .521-523. 


Small-pox, G41-(353. 


Squeezes, 327, 566, 567. 


Smokers of opium, 413-419. 


S(iuirrel tails, 625. 


Smoking, fiOl, G09, 61G. 


Squirrels, 453, 663. 


Snake skin, ")23. 


Stage, 600, 6ul. 


Snakes, 244, 245, GOG, 607, 665. 


„ Low estimation of, 603. 


Snipe, 521. 


„ properties, GOl. 


Snutf and mode of taking it, GIG, 


Staking on orange pips, 496, 497, 


„ bottles and spoons, 610. 


Stamps, 561-564. 


Soap, 625, 62G. 


Standard, The Green, 40. 


Soapstone ware, 108. 


Standing, 214. 


Societies. 536-548. 


Stars, 95, 570, 571, 572, 580. 


„ ■ Secret. 13G, 140. 548-5G0. 


State slaves, 534. 


Socks, 189, 616. 


States, The Three, 2S4, 316. 


Sofa, 255. 


Statistics, 175, 176. 335, 408, 416, 


Soldiers, 39-46, 517, 602. 


423, 470, 568, 569, 570. 


Soles of shoes, 616, 628. 


„ of Railway, 504, 505. 


Son, 8, 9, 11, 614, 653. 


Steam launches. 81. 


„ of Heaven. 61, 380. 


Steamers, 79, 1 18, 493, 630, 632. 


Song birds, 322-324. 


Stern-wheel passage boats, 80, 81, 


Songs, 458, 459, 461, 462, 467. 


Stink pots, 39. • 


Soochow, or Suchow, 81, 337, 423, 


Stockings, 189 


632, 635, 643. 


Stomach the seat of the intellect, 614. 


„ Books for learning, 89. 


Stone, 30, 33, 35. 36, 261, 2G2, 2G3, 


Soochow-Ningpo Kail way, 510. 


264, 488, 610. 


Sorrows, The Dissipation of, 461. 


„ age, 499. 


Soubriquet, 398. 


„ axeheads, 499. 


Souchong, 586. 


„ coolies, 616. 


Soutfle porcelain, 487, 488, 


„ musical instruments, 394. 


Souls, Three, 27. 


„ Philosopher's, 578, 579, 582. 


South America, 624, 645. 


Stools, 255. 


„ Australia, Chinese in, 128. 


Stopping places for steamers, 630, 


„ Carolina, Tea in. 590. 


634. 


„ of China, 144, 335. 520, 620, 


Stories, 231. 


621, 636, 641, 649. 662. 


Straits Settlomonts, 78, 118, 140, 155, 


Southern Buddhism, 78, 99. 


274, 556-558. 


„ School of Painting, 52-54. 


„ „ Chinese in thn, 122-125, 295. 


„ Squadron, 404. 


.. 'r^'a in, 589. 


Sovereigns, The Three, 277. 


.SUiUigu Tales from a Chinese Studio, 


The Five, 277. 


348. 


Spanish, 158, 249. 


Strawbraid, 624, 626, 627. 


„ dollars, 155. 


Streams, Worship of, 95, 582. 


Spears, 36, 41, C5. 


Streets, 22, 30, 33, 205, 654. 


Spectacle-cases, 204, 206. 


Strokes in Shuttlcock playing, 522, 


thrush, 323. 


523. ' ^ 


X Spectacles, 216. 


Stucco work, 32. 


Spheres of influence, 293, 294, 508. 


Style, Another, 397. 


Spice, 610. 


Styles, Metal, 658. 


Spices, 625. 


Su Tung-po, 349, 467, 468, 604. 



INDEX. 



Su Wu. 4G1. 




Symbols, Imitative, 658-659. 




Sub-dialects, 168. 




„ Indicating Thought, 


659. 


Succession to throne, 26, 271. 




,, Uniting Sound, 659. 




Sugar, 623, 626. 




Synagogue. 307. 




Sui dynasty, 316. 




Szchuen. 105, 121, 153, 194. 


284, 


'Suicide, 416, 564-568, 657. 




310, 379, 415. 499, 569, 611, 


626, 


Sumatra, Tea in, 589. 




530. 632, 641. 




„ Tobaaco in, 611. 




Sk-Mu Kwong, 343. 




Sumatran kerosene, 623, 627. 




Szemao, 631, 632. 




Summer houses, 255. 








Summons to Secret Society Meet- 






ings, 65, 551. 




T 




Sun, 553, 570-572. 








Sunday, Want of, 1 44. 




Tabasheer, 37, 65, 




Sung dynast)', 53, 54, 57, 105 


108, 


Table of Ports of Call, 634. 




149, 229, 275, 285, 287, 294 


317, 


,. of Treaty Ports, 632, 633 




326, 354, 429, 477, 478, 479, 


579, 


Table-covers, 205. 




603,604, e-ll, 643. 




Tablet tea, 624. 




Sungei Ujong, Chinese in, 124. 




Taboo, 401, 402. 




Sun-tsz, 429. 




Taels, 155, 562. 




Superciliousness, 321. 




T'ai P'ing Rebellion, 105, 157, 


276, 


Superiority to other Asiatics, 


134, 


292, 293, 471, 478, 548-558. 




136. 




Taichow, 90. 




Supernatural Creatures, The Four, 


Ta-i cups, 475, 477. 




182. 




Taiwan, 629. 




Superstition, 3. 10. 11, 163-165 


231. 


Takhing, 630. 




363, 439, 444, 568, 571, 572, 


576, 


Tang dyuasty, 47, 52, 53, 57, 


115, 


580, 613, 614. 




117, 275, 285, 286, 294, 316, 


317, 


Supreme Court, 230. 




320, 326, 342. 355, 381, 392, 


461, 


„ Ruler, 581, 582. 




475, 477, 500, 535, 559, 579, 


603, 


Surinam, Chinese in, 120. 




604. 




Surnames, 396, 397, 617. 




Tangchow, 629. 




Suttee, 565. 




Tannin, 593. 




Suzerain State, 60, 61. 




Tanning barks, 625. 




Swaddling bands, 74, 77. 




Tao, 575, 582. 




Swallowing gold. 568. 




Tao Teh King, 573, 575-577. 




Swatow, 32. 81, 84, 123, 130, 


142, 


Taoism, 85, 97. 99, 182, 231, 265 


348, 


167. 170, 172, 173, 


188, 


380. 394, 429, 553, 572-583. 




190, 192, 193, 227, 


234, 


Tartars, 280, 281, 287-294. 549. 




245, 251, 295, 319, 


338, 


Golden, 604. 




359. 363, 426, 515, 


520, 


Tasmania, Chinese in, 128. 




527, 588, 604, 612, 


622, 


Tatung, 630. 




626, 629, 658, 664, 666. 


Tau Kwong, 292. 




„ and Chau-chao-fu Rai 


way, 


Taxation, 592, 594, 596, 599, 600. 


507. 




Taxes, 13, 592. 




,, Books for learning, 89 


,90. 


Ta-yi Railwpy, 506. 




fans, 234. 




'Tea. 14, 72, 219. 245, ,383, 523, 


583- 


„ Railway, 507. 




597, 623-624, 627, 628. 




Sweden, 625. 




,, girls, 657. 




„ Tonnage of, to China, 


625. 


Teapots and cups, 588. 




Swedes in China, 158, 249. 




Teapoys, 255. 




Sweet-sop, 253. 




Tei P'6 Wiii. 545-547. 




Swiftlet, 73 




Telegraphs, 266, 597-598, 640. 




Swiss lake dwellings, 306. 




Temper, 114. 




Sword, 37. 




Temperance of the Chinese, 589. 


„ scabbard, 162. 




„ Society, 358, 558. 




Syllables in Chinese, 1 73. 




Temperateness, 138. 





INDEX. 



Temples, 22, 27. 30, 33, 34, S."), .")2, 
101, l-ld, 147, ir>i, 25,-), 2G(5, 338, 
380, 424, .549. 
Tender for kmn, r.40, .-ll, 542,0-13, 

544, r>4r). 
Tent. 31, 3(3. 

•Tenure of land, .-)0()-fiOO. 
Term Question, 373, 374. 
Tiirraced fields, 18. 
Tliauiiiaturgic mysteries ami priests, 
574, 577. 
---Theatres and thcadricals. 22, 24. 78, 
170, 25.5, 31)3, 535, 555, (iOO-604. 
Theatrical costumes, 2UC. 
Theine, 5!)3. 
Thieves. 300. 

Three Handed Chess. 111. 
„ Lights, The, 411, 
,, Powers of Nature, The, 311. 
'., Pure Ones, The. 580, 5S1. 
„ States, The, 284, 2i»4, 31(j. 
Throneless Kinp:. The, 145. 
(jjThrush, 325, mi. - 
Tibet, 181. 257, 291. 292, 381, 384, 
415, 471. 021, (;(;3. 
„ Tea scut to, G21. 
Tientsin. 41, 43, 405, 407, 503, 504, 
505, 597, 625, G29, G30, 
632, 634, 6.35, 649. 
,, China Kaihvay, 508, 509. 
„ Rhanhailvwan Railway. 

509. 
,. , Treaty of, 629. 
Tiger, The White, G05. 606. 
Tigers, 266, 521, 581, 604-606, 662. 
Tiles, 31, 34, 
Time, 206, 606-609. 
„ Keeping, 616. 
Timor postage stamps, 564. 
Timur, 288. 
T-in-kau, 498. 
Ting, Admiral, 405. 

„ Porcelain, 477. 
Titles, 162, 409. 410. 
Toad in the Moon, 571. 
-Tobacco and pipes, 609-G12, G24. 
Toleration, Edict of, 375. 
Tombs, 140, 153, 612-613. 
To-morrow. G06. 
Times. 315. 316. 
T'ong name, 398, 399. 
Tonnage, 625. 
Tonquin, 290. 
Topographical works, 344. 
To])sv Turvydom, 613-618. 
Tortoise, 182, 428. 
— Torture. 65, 230, 328, G18-619. 



Towns. 619 G32. 

Toys, 24, 64, 114. 

Tract on vaccination, 64S. 

,, Native, on vaccination, 649, 
650. 
Trade, 1.54-15G, 248. 249, 474, 587- 
597, 619-629. 

,. with Europe, Gl 9, 620. 

„ with foreign lands, 619-629. 
Traders, Adoption by, lU. 
Trading Race, The Chinese are a. 
619. 
,. voyages, 620. 
Tragedies,"603. 
Tramway, Peak, 58. 
Transmig-ration of sonls, 27, 101. 
Transport, 16.21. 

Travels, Rooks of, 82, 83, 84, 86, 87. 
Treaties. 37G. 629-635. 
Treaty Ports, 249, 37G, 406, f>60, 563, 

597. 606, 608 621 G25, 628, 

629-635. 652. 
Triad Society, 548-558. 

,, ,. in the Colonies, 556- 

558. 

„ „ ., United States. 

558. 
Tribute, 61. 

Trigrams, The Eight, 428. 
Trinidad. Chinese in, 119, 
Trinity. 580. 
Trousers, 186-189, 615. 
Trousseau, 361. 
Truite. 489. 
Tsang Porcelain, 487. 
Ts'ao''Fuk hing, 51. 
Tseng Kwo-chuan, 163. 
Tsi dynastv,285. 
Tsin or China, 114. 
,. Chi Hwang-ti, 282, 283, 
316, 326, 346, 578. 
„ dynasty, 275, 282, 283, 284, 
294, 326, 578. 
Ts'ing dyuasty, 56, (JS. 1 16, 276, 291, 

320, 326. 
Tsz fa lottery, 496. 
Tu Fu. 426. 464, 475. 
Tubero.ses, 242, 589. 
Tung Chi, 60, 202, 387, 
Tunghsing, 631. 
Tung Ting. 258, G32. 
Tung Wi'i Hospital. 651. 
Tung Wen Kwan, 203. 
Turbans. 192, 295. 
Turkey, 643. 
Turkey opium, 622. 
Turkish langnage, 319. 



INDEX. 



Turkistan, 305. 

Turks in China, 158, 382, 643, 
Two Emperors, The 411. 
Tyhoons, 515, 636-611. 

U 

Uighur, 356, 385, 386. 
Umbrellas. 64, 390. 

' Official, 163. 
Uncle of Mahorained, 379. 
Uniform, 42-43. 
Unit of Society, The family is the, 9, 

140, 270. 359. 
United States, 558, 623. 

„ ,, Chinese in, 118, 558. 

„ „ consumption of tea. 

594, 597. 

„ „ Tea in, 590-595. 

Uniting Sound Symbols, 659. 
Unpunctuality, 606. 
Urh-ya, 316, 



f Vaccination and Inoculation, 641- 

645. 
1 Vaccinators, 645-653. 
'' Vaccine establishments, 647, 649. 
651, 652. 
„ Institute, Hongkong' 

Government, 652. 
Vagueness in language, 606. 
Valour, 45. 

Vancouver, Chinese in, 119. 
Varieties of bamboo, 66. 

„ „ fish, 665. 
Varnish tree, 310. 

Vases. 65, 95, 96, 106, 107, 305, 661. 
Vaudeville, 603. 
Vegetables, 19, 63, 245, 650. 
Vegetarians, 559. 
Venerable Prince, The, 574. 
Venezuela, 306. 
Venezuelans in China, 158. 
Veracity, Want of. 134, 136. 
Verbiest, 373. 
Vermin, 113, 303, 434, 453. 
Versemaking, 200. 
Viceroys, 272. 
Victoria, Chinese in, 127. 
Village, 112, 140, 619. 
Violins, 394, 

Virtuous women, 656, 657, 
Viscera, the Five, 571. 
Visiting, 24, 219. 
„ ' cards, 387, 



Vocal gestures, 318, 
Voyages, 117, 118, 



W 



Wagtail, 323, 

Waising lottery, 495, 496. 

Waistcoats, 187. 

Wall, The Great, 35, 282, 290. 

Walls, 29, 30, 32, 34. 

Wan Lieh, 290. 372, 482. 

Wan Wong, 280. 

Wang Wei, 52. 

War junks, 79. 

Wars, 280, 281, 282, 284, 285, 286, 

287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 

471,603, 620, 632. 
Washing babies, 74. 75. 
Watch of the night, 609. 
Watches, 606, 608, 623. 
Watchmen, 609, 
Water, 571, 

„ colours, 50, 57. 

„ pipes, hookas, &c., 64, 609, 
610. 

,, shoes, 191. 
Waterways, 503, 
Way, Eight of, 213, 214. 
Weapons, 36-39, 41, 42. 
Web-footed birds, 665, 
Wedding feasts, 362, 363, 364, 

„ presents, 70, 532, 
Week, 608, 
Wei, State of, 574. 
Weighing mone}', 155. 
Weights and measures, 278. 
Weihaiwei, 293, 564, 635. 
Wen Chang, 229, 
Wenchow, 629. 
West Indies, 306, 

„ of Chinn, 36, 142, 641. 

„ River. 507. 604, 630. 
Western Australia, Chinese in. 127. 

„ Paradise, 98. 
Wham'ijce, 251, 
Whampoa, 631. 
Wheelbarrows 387. 
Whipping through the streets, 332. 
Whirlwind caused by dragon, 183. 
Whiskey, 650. 
Whispering. 220. 
White, 192, 193. 386, 571. 

„ ants, 103, 299, 300. 

is mourning, 386, 387, 616. 

„ Porcelain, 476, 477, 483, 484, 



INDEX. 



White rice fish, G65. 
,, tiger, (J05, GOO. 
,, wood carving, 107. 
Widows 056, 657. 

Wife, 6y-72, 74-77, 175-177, 123, 204. 
218, 220, 221, 286, 384, 386, 
387, 389, 400, 401, 531, 532, 
533, 534, 535, 564, 565, 614, 
653-658. 
„ Hire of, 535. 
„ Sale of, 535. 
Wild birds, 624. 

„ cats, 662. 
Wills, Chinese, 29, 
Windows, 30, 31. 
Wine, 23, 250. 

„ parties, 23. 
Winter solstice, 186. 
Witness, 216, 230, 333, GIS. 
Women, Status and position of, 
69-72, 74-77, 204, 206, 220, 221, 
240, 274, 496, 603, 653-658. 
Wong Fung, Dr., 650. 
Wonks, 662-663. 

Woo.or Wu, Emperor, 108, 280, 578. 
Wood, 571. 

„ carving, 106, 107. 
„ oil, 626. 
Woodcock, 521. 

Wooden instruments of music, 394. 
Wool, Sheep and Camels', 626. 
Woollen, 623. 
Woosung, 631, 632. 
„ Railway, 504. 

,, Eiver, 261. 

World's consumption of tea, 596. 
Worms, 244. 

Worship, Ancestor, 8, 9, 10, 25, 95, 
139, 373, 393, 513-514. 
., at the grave, 8, 23, 27. 

„ Evening, 393. 
„ of anti<iuity, 95. 

„ „ Confucius, 146, 147. 

„ „ Heaven and Earth, 393, 

513, 553. 
„ „ mountains and rivers. 

513. 
„ „ Nature, 95, 467, 513, 

553. 
,, „ stones, 513. 
„ ,, sun and moon, 393. 

„ ,, the dead, 389, 553. 

„ ,, „ Pleiades, 572. 

„ when inoculating for 

small-pox, 643. 
„ of the Wind, 95. 
Write, Ability to, 202. 



Writing, 48, 91, 315, 316, 658-662, 
597, 654. 
of the Khitans. 355, 356. 
„ „ „ Les, 5. 

„ „ „ Lolos, 5. 

„ „ „ Uigurs, 356. 

Wu, or Woo, Emperor, 108, 280, 578. 

,, Empress, 286. 
Wu Tao-tsz, 52. 57. 

„ Wong', 108,' 280. 578. 
Wuchow-fu, 630. 
Wuhu, 563. 629. 

Wusueh, 630. ^ 

Wusung, 631, 632. 
,, lliver, 632. 

X 

Xanadu, 105. 



Yamen, 327, 328, 619. 

Yang Chii Yiiau, 466. 

Yangtsz, 256, 258, 260, 261, 282, 288, 
340, 354, 446, 520, 598, 630, 632, 664. 

Yao, or Yaou, 270, 278, 325, 411. 

Yatung, 631. 

Year, A lunar, 607. 

Year name, or year style, 401, 607. 

Yeh, 161. 

Yellow Flag, Order of the, 163. 
„ Riding Jacket, 160. 
,. River, 258, 260, 278, 279, 

354. 620. 
„ Sea, 259, 260, 637. | 

Yen Li-pun, 52 ^ 

„ Li-teh, 52. 

Yersin, 450. 454. 

Yik King, 429. 

Yi-wui, 536-545. 

Yochow, 632. 

Ysbranti Ides, 484. 

Yu, The Great, 278, 523. 

Yu-kwo-tien-tsing, 478. 

Yuen dynastv, 54, 57, 287, 288, 289, 
150, 151, 326, 383, 482. 603, 604. 

Yuen Ying, 52. 

Yuh Yuen, 461. 

Yung Ching, 56, 291, 329, 489, 490. 

Yunnan, 5, 6, 121. 257. 284, 304, 
364, 379, 380, 415, 435, 436. 4.38, 
439, 440, 441, 442, 443,472. 499, 
507, 508, 569, 597, 598, 631, 663, 

Z 

Zeuxis, 50, 57. 

Zinc, 610. 

Zones of iniluence, 635. 

Zoology, 662-666. 



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